Today I went to Bank Discount, where I have a checking account, to pay my municipal tax (“arnona”) bill. In the far past, such transactions bore no bank charges, as the municipality in question reimbursed the bank for its transaction expenses.
Today I found that this year, payments to the municipality are not exempt from bank charges.
I further found that, contrary to past practice, I was charged twice. Once for the bill payment itself. Once for the act of withdrawing money from my bank account.
The municipal tax bill was not that small, so the total bank charges amounted to about 0.3% – not worth fighting over in the form of letter writing, making an appointment with the branch manager for a calm (but prolonged) argument, etc.
This is like one of the Soddom stories – how they screwed a brickmaker by having each Soddomite take just one brick from his workshop. Too small for a lawsuit, but nevertheless he got bankrupted, without any reasonable legal recourse.
Not having the time or justification to pursue the matter via the proper channels, I balanced things out by shouting at the branch manager for about 5 seconds in the presence of other people.
