Bank charges on pension cheques

It is not surprising how Bank of Valletta managed to increase profits during the current recession.

I have been authorised by my father, who is an elderly person, to cash his monthly pension, which as everyone knows is received via a Bank of Valletta cheque.

My father has an account with this bank. When I went to my local BOV branch I was charged €3.5 to cash my father's pension. On enquiring what the charge was for, the answer was that I was not in possession of an account with this bank.

I cannot understand what kind of reasoning this is. I am prepared to pay for a service but in this instance I was only handling my father's money and he is a client of this bank. At the end of the day it was my father who paid the charge.

Well it seems that they do find ways and means how to impose charges. Do we have an authority to monitor and regulate these instances to ensure that charges are justified?