Fees - General Information
Fees - General Information
Everyone can find out how much a banking service costs, compare prices offered by banks or other entities that provide the same service with the prices of alternative services, and decide what to do. For example, you can ask the bank where you keep your account to improve the terms or, where necessary, you can even switch to a bank that will give you a better deal.
Wise consumerism in banking, as in other fields, will help to improve the terms that are offered to customers at large.
The full price list is a standard and explicit list of services for which a bank can charge you, as determined and regulated in the Banking Rules (Customer Service) (Fees), 2008. The full price list applies to every individual customer and every corporate customer that is a “small business,” i.e., one that has activity of up to NIS 5 million per year. Banks must allow their customers to study the full price list at their branches and on their Web sites.
Banks offer many services but most consumers use only a few common ones. They are listed on short price lists relating to three major areas of activity: current accounts, mortgage loans, and credit cards. The short price lists are derived from the full price list.
Short price lists are accessible to customers at bank branches, the banks’ Web sites, and automatic machines that the banks make available to their customers. Customers may obtain a short price list shortly before they used the service.
The most important power is the right to determine a standard and explicit list of banking services for which banks are allowed to charge fees. The Bank of Israel is also empowered to intervene in the prices of banking services (when the legal grounds for doing this are present), and encourage competition in the banking system by publishing comparisons for the public to see.
They are listed in the table below:
| Bank fee | Remarks / rate |
|---|---|
Basic Track service |
Includes up to 10 customer-executed activities and up to one teller-executed activity. The price for the basic service is under supervision and may not exceed NIS 10. |
| Regular checkbook | This refers to the common and familiar type of checkbook. The price of each check in the book is limited to 36 agorot. |
| Management fee for housing loan | This fee is applied to borrowers who took a loan from the bank for the purchase of a dwelling. This fee is Charged each month along with the regular payback of the loan, it is limited to NIS 2 per month. |
| Consent to the creation of a lien in favor of another bank (including a lien of equal rank) | This is a fee that a bank applies under circumstances that require it to give written consent to the creation of a supplemental lien, in favor of another bank, on an asset that has been pledged to it by the borrower. A lien in favor of another bank usually becomes necessary when the customer wishes to take a supplemental loan from another bank using the same property as collateral, or when the customer wishes to replace a loan that he or she has taken from his or her bank with a less expensive loan from another bank. This fee is limited to NIS 150. |
| Transfer of securities to another account belonging to the same customer | This refers to cases where a customer wishes to transfer securities from an account with one bank to an account with another bank. It also includes the transfer of securities from an account in the customer’s name to a joint account in which the customer is only one party. The maximum fee for this service is NIS 5, plus reimbursement of expenses that the banking corporation incurs vis-à-vis a third party (e.g., the Stock Exchange or a banker abroad) for the provision of this service. |
| Transfer of foreign currency in Israel to an account belonging to the same customer | A bank transfer of foreign currency from a customer’s account with one bank to the same customer’s account with a different bank. |