You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t at least heard about Twitter. But fret not, you are not alone if you don’t have a twitter account and now ING Direct is offering you a way to 1) get your feet wet with the twitter experience and more importantly 2) raise awareness on bank fees.
A friend put me in touch with ING Direct’s Social Media Lead who was kind enough to answer some questions about their new FeeTweeter application. My questions are in italics and ING Direct’s responses are in regular text. Please note: I am not being compensated or have any affiliation with ING for writing this post – just thought it would genuinely be of interest to some readers.
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What is the FeeTweeter application in a nutshell?
The FeeTweeter application is a Twitter app that allows users (and non users) of the micro-blogging tool to keep track of the bank fees they’re being charged. The application is located at http://FeeTweeter.fairfees.ca, where you can choose to tweet using your own account or a guest account. You’ll be able to create your tweet by selecting the type of fee, how much it was, and whether or not you think it was fair. You can even customize your message; we’ve received some hilarious ones so far!
The application tallies all of the Fee Tweets that you’ve submitted via @FeeTweeter, and direct messages your totals to you every two weeks. We built out this application in support of our Fair Fees movement, which began early May at http://www.fairfees.ca. It’s a community where you can Listen, Speak, and Act against unfair bank fees, presented in a fun and interactive way.
How can people join in on the fun? Is there a cost or do you have to submit any personal info to sign up?
It’s easy! You don’t necessarily have to have an account or even be that familiar with Twitter (even better, you can get acquainted by trying out FeeTweeter). You don’t have to submit any personal information – even if you log in using your own Twitter account through our application on the FairFees.ca website, it’s only so you can publish the tweet to your stream.
How many tweets have been sent to FeeTweeter so far?
We launched officially July 2, 2009. The running total right now is about 300 tweets and about $4,500 in total bank fees tweeted. Keep ‘em coming Canada!
What’s the biggest fee you’ve seen tweeted?
The largest one we’ve received so far has been $250.00 for Product Transfer Fees. That’s huge, if you consider the average Canadian’s day to day bank fees are about $175 a year.
What is the most common type of fee that people complain about?
ABM Fees are definitely up there. Overage and transaction fees are something that many Fee Tweeters have a beef with as well.
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I am now following FeeTweeter on Twitter, and they Re-tweet a lot of funny comments people have about their fees. For instance:
RT @FedUpWithFees was just charged $3.50 for ABM Fees and I think this was unfair, considering it was a shady backalley abm decorated in gum
@gene – it will be interesting to see if this app has a big effect. It’s funny and eye-opening for lots of people.
ING itself charged me $50 for a mortgage payment NSF, they charge the fees too
@Stephanie – true, there will probably always be fees of some sort but with regards to the monthly fees and some other common fees, there are some banks that are better than others.