Let me start by clarifying a couple of things right at the start:
- I have not been paid by any of the banks to write this article and have no investments in any of the banks.
- I do have a substantial mortgage to pay so I do know how it feels when that monthly repayment goes out of the savings account.
Barely a week goes by without me reading, listening or watching someone who goes on and on about how horrible the banks are. How they should reduce their interest rates when the reserve bank does. How they charge unreasonable bank fees. How they make millions of dollars and should reduce their charges or interest rates to help the customers.
I call this "bank bashing". Is this justified? ABSOLUTELY NOT. And I will tell you why.
Buying a house (and having a mortgage) might be our dream but it is not a necessity of life (we can rent a house for the rest of our lives) and when we bought a house of say $500,000 we knew that we would have to pay the mortgage for a certain number of years and that interest rates keep changing. We knew there are a number of lenders out there and we decided to sign a mortgage contract with a particular lender. So now if we cant earn enough to repay the mortgage, whose fault is it? The banks? Obviously not! Its our fault that we bought something we couldn't afford. The banks never told us to buy a house of a certain value, they just helped us and its about time we all took full responsibility for our actions.
Now to the question of the banks charging all these "unfair" bank fees and making millions of dollars. The banks are a business at the end of the day and they are there to make money. Again having a bank account with a particular bank was your decision, you knew or now know what fees they charge, etc. So if you don't like the fees being charged then move to another bank that has lower fees or if you cant find a bank that offers what you want then keep the money under your mattress, but do take responsibility of the decision you make.
Do not take this article out of context and interpret my meaning of the message that all the people who are struggling out there to repay their loans deserve it and should not be helped. I am NOT saying that, all I am saying is that we all need to take responsibility for our financial situation and stop blaming others for it!
Suresh Rajani is
the Business Leader at Tax First - an
accounting and business advisory firm located in Wayville, South
Australia.
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