Komerční banka introduces MojeOdměny: new concept of its fee policy

Press release

9/21/2010
8:00 AM

On 1 January 2011, Komerční banka will significantly extend the new concept for pricing its services. The objective of these changes is to provide price-related advantages for such behaviour of clients, which is comfortable for the clients and at the same time the best for the bank in terms of its costs. The changes will concern transactions made using payment cards, and during 2011 the concept will be extended to include additional groups of banking operations.

The underlying idea of the presented changes is that clients themselves should be able, through their own activity, to influence the final amount of the fees and charges that they pay to the bank for a given period of time. Under the new concept, Komerční banka rewards its clients for desirable behaviour without forcing them to buy any product or service to reach a more favourable price.

“The centre of attention of Komerční banka’s new pricing policy is the clients’ activity rather than a particular product. For example, every Komerční banka client will newly be able to achieve all cash withdrawals from KB’s ATMs using a payment card completely free of charge, irrespective of whether they use any current account or a package containing an account,” said Monika Truchliková, Deputy Executive Director for Marketing and Business Development at Komerční banka.

Main changes from 1 January 2011 were prepared for holders of payment cards issued by Komerční banka. Regardless of the type of payment card, each payment card user will obtain one free withdrawal from a KB’s ATM for every payment at a retailer using the card. Rational clients whose activity is on an average level will therefore obtain all withdrawals from KB’s ATMs free of charge without any problems. At the same time, they need not hold any of the more prestigious cards as has been the case so far.

The whole concept is extremely transparent, and flexible from the clients’ point of view. “It is only up to the clients when they make payments or withdrawals during a month; at the moment of withdrawal from an ATM, the fee is charged to clients, but they have time until the end of the month to cover the withdrawals by payments at retailers, and will receive the entire sum of the charges for withdrawals back to their account in the following month,” Jozef Ryšavý, Head of Marketing Planning and Price Control explains the principle on which the functioning of the MojeOdměny concept is based.

Since this year’s holidays, Komerční banka has been rewarding university graduates and is refunding the fee for account keeping to them.  “Since the launch of the MojeOdměna concept in June 2010, we have rewarded more than 11,000 clients of Komerční banka. On average, each and every one of them has obtained more than CZK 200 in fees. We have paid out rewards totalling more than CZK 2.2 million to date,” added Monika Truchliková.

Effective from 1 January 2011, the fees for the prestigious payment cards will also go down significantly. The annual fee for gold card maintenance will drop to CZK 2,990 (from the current CZK 5,000 or CZK 4,000, depending on the type of the account). From 1 January 2011, KB clients will obtain a silver card for as little as CZK 990 per year (instead of the current CZK 3,500 or CZK 2,500). The reduction in the fee for the maintenance of prestigious cards will apply to KB’s current and new clients alike.

KB is reducing the fee for maintaining embossed payment cards from the current CZK 700 to CZK 490 per year.

“For selected payment cards, the insurance limits have also been adjusted with a view to reflecting the actual needs of the clients and the actual utilisation by the clients,” adds Monika Truchliková.

The bank will reflect the actual costs of the operation of its call centres in the fee for a transaction made using Expresní linka KB, which will go up to CZK 14 on 1 January 2011. “Expresní linka continues to be a non-stop service, where telephone bankers provide assistance with the ordering of transactions. Here, too, KB clients can use an alternative service, specifically the MojeBanka internet banking channel. The fee for transactions made by clients, both individuals and businesses, is staying on the same level and amounts to only CZK 4,” says Monika Truchliková.

Further, the fee for cash withdrawal without notification and the fee for increasing the limit on authorised overdraft on a current account will be abolished.

The fee for depositing excessive amounts of cash in small businesses’ and companies’ accounts at a counter in the bank will also be reduced significantly from the current minimum fee of CZK 750 (0.15% of the deposited amount) to a single uniform fee of CZK 75.

You will find the full wording of KB’s Price List effective from 1 January 2011 at www.kb.cz.

Komerční banka is one of the best run universal banks in Central Europe. It provides comprehensive services to clients in the areas of retail, corporate, and investment banking. The Komerční banka Group’s 8,624 employees serve 2.7 million clients, who can use an extensive network of 395 points of sale throughout the country. Komerční banka currently operates 676 ATMs and almost 989,000 of its clients use one of direct banking channels.

Komerční banka is part of the Société Générale Group, one of the largest banking groups in the euro zone (in terms of market capitalisation), whose 157,000 employees serve more than 32 million individual clients worldwide.