Paul,
 
> lucky you, the banks here have charges for just about anything and
> everthing, want to use an EFT machine to check your balance, it costs
> you....
 
All banking-operations here are free until one's 26th birthday as well.
 
I'm paying something like 6 Euro a month for a whole range of services
(which I think could/should be free anyway). PC Banking via the internet,
EFT operations, credit-cards, debit-cards, cash-cards, unlimited number of
transactions, access to the stock-exchange for dealing with shares,
ATM-operations on any machine anywhere in the world via the Maestro-system,
no commission on foreign currency-exchange and more.
 
 \%/{at}rd 

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