Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) is charging more for the maintenance of some of their accounts and for MB Way transfers. However, they have said that there will be some increase exemptions.
As of the 26th of January 2020, a three euro fee will be charged for all counter withdrawals including those from a passbook, a 0.25 cent increase on the previous €2.75 fee. Furthermore, a fee of €2.00 will now be payable on all passbook updates.
According to a document sent by an official source to the papers in October 2019, the increases are to encourage customers to seek more cost-effective ways of withdrawing money, paying bills and purchases, while phasing out the use of ‘passbooks.’
However, to protect elderly and financially disadvantaged customers, the bank will not charge customers aged over 65 years of age or those with lower income and financial assets the counter withdrawal fee.
In a statement, the bank said ‘they will provide exemptions to all their customers who are paid equal or less than the minimum wage. All remaining customer will be charged 0.34 cents per month, approximately 0.01 cent per day.
Regarding transfers, the bank has decided to increase the number of free transfers to their Caixa S Accounts from two to four, while doubling the amount of free transfers that Caixa M Account customers can make. However, Caixa L customers will find that their terms and conditions unchanged. MB Way Transfers will also be taxed, with the cost rising to 85 cents, to which a 4% stamp duty will be added, making the final amount payable 88.4 cents.
The bank’s official source has explained that there are 2.5 million customers who will continue to be exempt from additional charges including those who use Conta Caixa, young people up to the age of 26 and those who use MB Way from CGD applications (Caixadirecta, DABOX and Caixa Easy).
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
Photo: Steve Johnson – Upsplash