by admin charges do mean establishment fees Daniel? they can be quite substantial or have they been scrapped as well.
One of the criticisms of making it easier to change banks by abolishing exit fees is that banks would just recoup their money elsewhere.
Now that you mention it, the fist step just recently in the banks adjusting their interest rates independently of the reserve bank co-inside, roughly, with the abolishing of exit fees.
sometimes there are other factors besides interest rates in determining which bank you go with. westpac for eg are one of the few that offer low doc loans, something those that are self emplyed often require. nor do all banks offer interest only loans.
in our case as well, their insurance premiums they offered for borrowers were better than any we could get elsewhere.
dont get me wrong, im not a west pac fan boy, but the set up we have suits us, at the moment. i also have a business ac with anz and my eftpos facility and settling account with nab. in each case it was what suited me at the time.
Banks are the cornerstone of Capitalism, and they have us all by the short and curlies. the whole concept of regularly swapping and changing banks over 1% and less interest rates differences is flawed and just doesnt work in practice, sadly.
What really poos me is the whole GFC was largely due to the actions and subsequent collapse of banks/lending institutions, yet it was taxpayers the world over that had to bail them out, just for them to continue on their deregulated, greedy ways.
The sad and dangerous irony in the system is that the largest capitalist country is in now in debit to the largest communist country in the world, to such an extent that if china were to call in it's debts, the US would be bankrupt overnight.