Plum for Fighting Bank Fees

The British FinTech Plum is considering some enhancements for their PFM and savings services as they introduce a new option for managing bank fees: a tracker and a comparison feature by way of advocating transparency.

Plum’s Fee Fighter service is intended to fight hidden bank fees. Its point is to track, or list, charges supposedly hidden by banks. Fee Fighter relies on an account aggregator to scrutinise all transactions made by the customer.

Fee Fighter’s AI relies on Semantic Intelligence to detect various fees charged by the bank. It can also identify and single out these costs, when part of larger categories (“other”, for instance). Plum then proposes more cost-efficient alternative offers to its customers.

Comments – “Witch hunting” fees as a consequence of PSD2 implementation

According to Plum, 27% of bank fees charged in the UK are labelled under “other”. They relate to monthly account maintenance costs, other charges, or unspecified subscription fees. Plum intends to address this issue for the sake of transparency.

In France, the current context could also lead industry players to roll out such services. In the end of 2017, two months after 60 Millions de Consommateurs released a study on bank charges, the Minister for Economy and Finance launched a mission on reconsidering excessive fees. The Government also committed to dealing with this issue, and a comparison service for bank fees has been proposed since early 2016.

According to a recent survey by UFC-Que Choisir, so far, both Macron law on banking mobility and competition from new players have failed to address this issue: bank charges keep increasing. However, Plum’s Fee Fighter highlights new possibilities derived from PSD2 implementation: customers can be encouraged to change bank, for instance, which means these institutions need to commit to improving transparency and to reducing costs.