Bank charges for returned statements

When I moved apartments I forgot to tell the bank about my new address. At the end of the year I noticed that money had been taken off my account and when I asked the bank they told me that this was to cover the cost of my bank statements being returned because my address was wrong. Is this normal or can I complain?

Hi there,

Some banks charge administrative fees for returned mail. Aside from banks, various other service providers charge similar fees. If left unchecked, these returned mail fees can add up to a large expense.

Make sure to contact the banks you work with ahead of your move to inform them about your new address.

Alternatively you can sign up for a mail forwarding service from the Swiss Post which automatically forwards all mail addressed to you to your new address. This is a good stop gap solution if for any reason you cannot inform each service provider about the change of address individually. The only downside is that the forwarding service costs 42 francs (forwarding within Switzerland) or 102 francs (forwarding to address outside of Switzerland) per year. If you sign up online the cost is lower at 30 francs for 1 year of forwarding within Switzerland and 90 francs per year for international forwarding.

Most Swiss banks give you the option of not receiving communications by mail. If you are content to access communications from the bank via online banking, terminating postal communications can help you avoid possible mail-related fees following address changes.

Many Swiss banks charge for posting paper statements and you can find these fees on product information pages in the moneyland.ch bank package comparison and private account comparison. so you can avoid this cost if you are comfortable with using online banking.

Best regards from Moneyguru

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