UBS is continuing to put pressure on customers who cannot or are not willing to forego paper statements and correspondence. The bank is introducing two new fee schedules which will take effect on June 1, 2018. The more affordable Standard option applies to electronic banking contracts for which all documents like account and card statements are only delivered electronically. The Traditional option has significantly higher fees and applies to customers who prefer to receive paper statements.
Elderly customers are the hardest hit
“UBS hopes that by hiking its fees for conventional banking, it can drive a large portion of its customers to adopt digital banking,” says moneyland.ch CEO Benjamin Manz. Cost savings are one of the stated goals of the fee increase. But increasing the fees it charges to offline customers will inevitably provide the bank with a welcome source of additional revenue. “Elderly customers will be the primary victims which are accustomed to physical documents.” Customers who want to continue receiving conventional banking services without paying added fees can move their accounts to another bank. “Changing Swiss banks is a lot less complicated than many bank customers think it is,” says Manz. You can find a checklist of things to consider in the moneyland.ch guide to changing banks.
What will change?
From June 1, 2018, UBS is raising a number of fees across its accounts and bundled service packages for customers who are not willing to forego physical documents. Affected packages include the UBS Generation youth package, the UBS Campus student package, the UBS Young Professional package, the UBS Individual package and the UBS Family package. Customers who already manage their accounts entirely electronically and do not receive physical correspondence will not be affected.
The UBS Individual banking package for adults will cost 240 Swiss francs per year. Customers with 10,000 francs of assets or a mortgage at UBS will pay 180 francs per year. Standard-model customers will pay an annual fee of 180 francs per year – with Standard-model customers who hold 10,000 francs of assets or a mortgage at UBS paying 120 francs per year.
The UBS Generation package for youths and the UBS Campus package for students as it is now offered will cost 60 francs per year. Only Standard-model customers (electronic) will continue to receive the packages at no annual fee. The fee for the Young Professional package is increasing to 120 francs per year. The current 72-franc annual fee will continue to apply, but only to Standard-model customers.
The Family bank package for families will cost 360 francs per year, with customer holding 10,000 francs or more of assets or a mortgage at UBS paying 240 francs per year. The Standard model will continue to cost 300 francs per year or 180 francs per year (for customers who hold 10,000 francs or more at UBS or mortgage property to UBS).
The fee schedule for stand-alone UBS private accounts will remain unchanged. The current annual fee of 84 francs (60 francs with 10,000 francs or more of assets or a UBS mortgage) will apply to accounts based on the Traditional model. The annual fee for online accounts will continue to be 24 francs lower.
How does UBS compare to other banks?
The UBS private account (non-bundled) for adults who want to receive physical documents is still one of the most expensive private accounts in Switzerland, as shown in the private account comparison on moneyland.ch. The costs of the electronic version of the account are in the lower-average cost segment.
The new fee schedules will push UBS accounts and bundled banking packages for youths and students who prefer to receive physical statements into the upper-average cost segment.
The new fee schedules strongly affect the costs of UBS banking packages for adults in relation to those of services offered by other banks. Accounts based on the digital Standard model, on the other hand, compare well to packages offered by UBS competitors.
You can perform a precise and customizable comparison using the interactive private account and banking package comparisons on moneyland.ch. The new UBS fees have already been integrated into the comparison tools.
More on this topic:
Private account comparison
Banking package comparison
UBS banking packages
UBS private accounts
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