ATB refunds ‘no-fee’ account fees.

Customers over 59 eligible for no-fee account

In a move that could cost ATB Financial almost $6 million, nearly 20,000 Alberta customers will be refunded bank fees after the institution discovered it had not contacted some customers about their eligibility for a no-fee account.

In a news release Tuesday, the ATB said a customer from Slave Lake pointed out that he had qualified for the bank’s Freedom Account seven years earlier, on his 59th birthday. ATB immediately switched the man, 66, to the new account, which does not charge monthly fees, and reimbursed all the fees paid past his 59th birthday.

While 120,000 customers were already registered with the Freedom Account, ATB found 19,159 had not yet been signed up. This revealed a flaw in the bank’s communications with eligible customers, the bank said.

The bank will reimburse all regular monthly account fees for eligible customers 59 and over who don’t already have the Freedom Account, dating as far back as 2007 when the account was introduced.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Rob Bennett, executive vice-president of retail financial services.

The ATB is one of only two banks in Alberta that offers a full-service account with no monthly fee and unlimited transactions for customers 59 and over, Bennett said.

“Legally, do we need to refund this money? Probably not,” Bennett said. “But from a values perspective, our intention was that clients over the age of 59 would have access to a free bank account, and we know ... we can do a better job of communicating than we have in this case.”