Heya

Just a quick heads-up, got a letter from PostFinance today that they were upgrading their fees and blablabla and they had analysed my account and found that I fit best into their most expensive option (of course) .
So, starting on 01.07. they wanted to charge me 12.- per month, plus 5.- per month for any paper letters. Which gives a whopping 204.- fee per year for the honour of giving them your money .

If anyone here has a PostFinance account, you can log-in to their website and change the settings (quite well hidden, click on your name in the menu, then "My products", under "Fees", which is such a beauty in graphical design that my old brain couldn't find it for a solid minute, the tiny "Details" button on the right, and then "Check and adapt options", and there you can switch.
/RANT OVER

Hope this can be helpful to someone else. More details can be found here:
https://www.postfinance.ch/en/privat...g-package.html

Curious question, why would you want paper statements?

Let's just say I'm old. I like to have stuff I can touch, in binders, and know where I can find it again in twenty years.
PDF files on the computer, on the other hand... I can't imagine what will have happened to them in even five years.
I know there's next to zero chance of reading anything I did for university twenty years ago, unless I have it on paper.

And if it stays on the screen, it doesn't enter my brain. Same with books.
Maybe it's also about the principle, 5.- for a measly piece of paper.
And then of course their sister post.ch complains that nobody is sending any letters any more .

Get the PDFs, print yourself and put into the binder. It costs less than 5 Francs.

When I logged in there was a button on the right hand side of the landing page clearly indicating that I should check the changes. When I clicked on the button I found they had me on the lowest fees and that it will be canceled by the monthly discount amount. The letter about it arrived two days later.

Nothing was hidden and the change was expected.

Not good. The UBS family pack is cheaper than that. If PF rises the prices, other banks will increase their prices too

It’s not 5 francs for a piece of paper, it 5 francs to cover the cost of running a large printing, sorting and distribution operations for the small number of customers that still want printed statements.

Within my family and friends I don’t know anyone that will end up paying fees to PF - assets over 25k, a pension fund account or a mortgage covers it.

Ooh, someone never had to buy one of those golden ink toner cartridges, where you want to print in black and white but the printer won't budge because you're out of CYAN. And then you use them so rarely that they dry out before you can use them a second time.

They must like you better than me! Even with a discount!
(See, if they're accepting YOUR money for free, they have to get even and ask for triple the base rate from us common folks)

Definitely agree, I have been printer-free for many years. Fortunately I have a thumb drive and friends who still have printers.

Well those services are not free. So you are already paying them fees.

The reason paper statements cost 5chf is because it is economically unfriendly and they are rightly trying to dissuade people from using it. If you aren't willing to learn new small IT-related things and/or adjust habits to fit with the changing times then that is the price you must pay for convenience.

You could buy a black and white laser printer that will do tons of prints reliably and cheaply... though of course it will take 1.5 years to make the initial investment worthwhile vs paying 5chf per month for the statements https://www.digitec.ch/en/s1/product...upplier=406802

Then after 10 years what do you do with your by now fat file of statements and other confidential information? Buy a shredder??

Perhaps he keeps them like Warren Buffet who has every tax declaration he ever made, over 70 years of confidential paperwork!

So! What's the alternative to PF?

Well it would seem that you are not one of the common folks.... most common folks on here have savings, modest investments, mortgages etc. all of which will get them the discount canceling out the fees.

I would assume that any other Swiss bank can be considered as an alternative to PF.

Why would you expect any commercial organization to give their goods or services away for free? Some people’s sense of entitlement is amusing.

The approach adapted by PF is no different to that of other banks - turn loss making customers into profitable ones or loose them. Nobody should be surprised by that!

In the long run probably none. The idea of free banking was yet another dumb idea in banking management. It’s just not possible to pull in enough high wealth clients who will buy sufficient other services to cover the costs of giving stuff away. The magic number seems to be around 300b, pushing AUM beyond that figure without costs seems impossible in Europe at least. And the only way to up your share is to steal the clients and that is not free either!

Even the digital only banks are reporting losses.

<<they had analysed my account and found that I fit best into their most expensive option>>

When did they announce that to start on July 1st? They should give you a cancellation period as you're free to move on if you don't agree with unilateral alteration of contract!
My bank also wants me to sign a dubious change of contract. At least I know now that PF is not the place to go if I need to take the consequences

Well, you'll use the printer (a lot) more often now, so one problem solved.

I've not seen a paper from the bank in years. Yet I too like hard copies of some things, so I print them out.

This. I sometimes wonder when that actually started.

__________________
It's all a matter or perspective.
So move your butt and look at it from the other side