Early in 2008, I issued instructions to my bank, Bank of Valletta, to issue a monthly standing order and to debit my current account accordingly. The agreed monthly charge for this service was €3.49.

On checking the latest statement for the period September 4, 2009 to December 28, 2009, I noticed that the charge was reduced to €1.16 for October and November but raised to €10.00 for the subsequent months. Upon checking at the branch I was informed that this was, now, the correct charge for this type of transaction.

I have since cancelled the standing order in view of the excessive charges and wrote to the branch manager asking whether the bank had advised me about the almost 200 per cent increase. More than a month has passed and I am still waiting for a response to this, as well as other issues raised in the same letter.

Surely the client has a right to know when fees are raised and that automatically debiting a client's account without authorisation is, at the very least, unethical.

Readers would be well advised to read their statements well and check if their various bank fees have increased without prior notification.