Email from Santander about bank account monthly fees

[camel]

Santander recently sent me a mail saying (I think) if I want to keep my "SuperCuenta" account "bonificada" (avoid the monthly fees), I have to do 1 of 4 things, like have a salary deposited automatically, etc. This confused me a little because they already charge me about 500 pesos per month for fees. I don't keep a lot in the account...around 5000 or 10,000 pesos typically, and a few hundred USD (just so I can experience being part of the next Corralito). Anyway, one of the 4 ways to keep the account "bonificada" is to have seguros (insurance) through Santander. So I signed up for a "robo cajero" insurance for 59 pesos per month, which complies with 1 of the 4 things required. Then today I get the following email, where they seem to have renegotiated the terms a bit. It now says the insurance must be at least 2500 pesos per month!



Anyone else dealing with this? They're already charging me a monthly fee - are they going to raise it? They don't actually say what my monthly fee will be in the email. I don't have 200,000 pesos in this account for a plazo fijo, and 2500 pesos per month for some insurance I don't need is probably more than the monthly fee anyway.

 

[lunar]

Current commissions are described on the Santander's bank site.
If you don't like them, change the bank.

 

[dsp27]

Change banks, get one with no fees.

 

[Macanudo]

Banco Ciudad

www.bancociudad.com.ar

No fee account with a debit card

 

[camel]

Current commissions are described on the Santander's bank site.
If you don't like them, change the bank.

After looking at that, I think when I signed up for the account, it was a "cuenta ahorros" (which had no fees).. so at some point they changed my account to "SuperCuenta". When I'm back in Argentina I'll have to go see what's up.

 

[lost]

After looking at that, I think when I signed up for the account, it was a "cuenta ahorros" (which had no fees).. so at some point they changed my account to "SuperCuenta". When I'm back in Argentina I'll have to go see what's up.

You mentioned you keep a few hundred dollars in that bank. The "caja de ahorros" in dollars is not free (only cajas de ahorro in Pesos have to be "free" by law). That explains why you have the super cuenta package.

You could cancel the super cuenta package and just keep the free caja de ahorro in Pesos.

 

[FrankPintor]

After looking at that, I think when I signed up for the account, it was a "cuenta ahorros" (which had no fees).. so at some point they changed my account to "SuperCuenta". When I'm back in Argentina I'll have to go see what's up.

They changed your CBU as well? With no notification?

 

[lost]

They changed your CBU as well? With no notification?

The CBU normally stays the same. The background is that the banks often try to upsell you a package where the caja de ahorra is then just one part. They typically add some USD account, credit card (if you qualify) etc. so they can charge you money for it.

 

[FrankPintor]

The CBU normally stays the same. The background is that the banks often try to upsell you a package where the caja de ahorra is then just one part. They typically add some USD account, credit card (if you qualify) etc. so they can charge you money for it.

OK, in the case we're looking at, the CBU was changed, with no notice as far as we can see. As late as August it was one CBU, now it's another.

As another poster said, change to a different bank, that's what we will do. Itau seems to work ok.

 

[dsp27]

I have both Itau and Brubank. Neither charges me a fee. My Argentine friends always make fun of me for having an account with Itau, as it's not a very well established bank here but it works great and I have never had an issue. They have some decent discounts with Beat, Cabify, Farmacity, Rappi etc. Brubank is usually where I keep my cash to spend as the mobile app is nicer and easy to follow than Itau's online banking.