Hidden Charges Research Articles

Assuring Service Quality through SERVQUAL at the Land Bank of the Philippines North NCR Branches

This study aims to assess and assure service quality through SERVQUAL in the Land Bank of the Philippines North NCR Branches. Quantitative methods were employed, with 100 clients/customers, 216 front-liners, and 66 administrators from 82 LANDBANK North NCR Branches participating as respondents. A structured questionnaire served as the primary data collection tool. Statistical analyses included weighted mean, frequency and percentage distribution, standard deviation, Slovin’s formula, and Cronbach alpha reliability test. This study assesses the service quality perceptions among administrators, front-liners, and clients at LANDBANK. Results revealed a majority of female presence across all respondent groups. Administrators, aged 51 years and above, are mainly single and highly educated with postgraduate degrees. In contrast, majority of the front-liners and clients are aged 26-30 years and are married and hold mostly college degrees. Assessment across five dimensions of LANDBANK's service quality – tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy – revealed different perceptions. Tangibility was rated as commonly observed, with concerns about outdated equipment and system functionality. Reliability was rated higher by administrators than the front-liners and clients, issues encountered include long waiting times, system maintenance, ATM failures, and client-reported poor customer service. Administrators rated responsiveness higher than frontliners and clients, who highlighted delays and system failures. Assurance received higher ratings from administrators and front-liners but there are concerns encountered regarding hidden charges and security from clients. Empathy was consistently rated higher by administrators and front-liners compared to clients, citing instances of unsatisfactory customer service. Administrators rated LANDBANK’s service quality higher than the front-liners and clients, suggesting opportunities for enhancing alignment with customer expectations. Key issues identified include system reliability, long waiting times, and ATM failures. Recommendations focus on facility upgrades, IT enhancements, staffing increases, professionalism development, and improved customer service training to elevate service quality, customer satisfaction, and competitiveness at LANDBANK North NCR Branches.

Enhancing Air Travel Experience: An Innovative Approach to Mitigate Flight Delays and Enhance Customer Satisfactio

Air travel is an essential mode of transportation in today's fast-paced world, and the number of air travelers is growing exponentially. Airports are the backbone of this mode of transportation, providing the necessary infrastructure and facilities to facilitate seamless travel. Despite advancements in technology, air travelers continue to face numerous challenges, such as flight delays, hidden charges, and navigating unfamiliar airports. This research paper aims to explore the development and implementation of a mobile application that addresses these issues and enhances travelers' overall experience. The objectives include reducing flight delays and missed flights, saving customers from hidden charges, improving the overall travel experience, and providing guidance in new airports.

Can VI be a Supportive Product for Rapid Growth of Digital-Banking in Economy: Seeking Attentions for Policy-Design Country-Wise

Today’s human-race lives in world of business-mentality where services are carried-out in a competitive manner. It has resulted technology-driven lifestyles. Meeting these advancement-needs in multi-faucets, maintaining customer-loyalty has become a strategic mandate in today's service-markets. Banking services are no exception. It is carried-out in a competitive mode that has resulted using digital banking-services in economy country-wise. However, since the beginning of its journey, the perceived-risk factors have been undermining the growth-trend of digital-banking-usages in economy country-wise such as Bangladesh. Inclusion of Voluntary Insurance (VI), a new product in digital-banking services, can be an impetus meeting the challenges - perceived risk-factors such as trust-issue, psychological risk of probable direct monetary-costs such as hidden charges, extra fees, account hacked etc. This proposed product can be supportive in increasing values that are what will keep the banks be growing. As a result, it can ensure booming-economy country-wise. If there is no new value to offer, banks wilts and eventually dies. Economic-growth-trends of countries surely endorse adding new legal product(s), which will improve society beyond just satisfactions of customers. This new supportive product can be lifeblood to banks as human society are moving ahead.

Study on Awareness and most convenient ways to select the Trading Account Application

In this study, the researcher was study on the awareness and most convenient ways to select the trading account application. In the recent time an investor has many choices towards opening the Demat/Trading account because there are many application s by which they can operate their account. The main objective of the study to know the factor inspiring investors to open Trading Account, to know the investors preference or criteria for selecting the trading account application. Review of literature which includes authorized work of various authors with conclusion, variable studies and interpretation In this study researcher used Descriptive Research design and Non –probability convenience sampling. The data has been collected through the questionnaire. Which includes demographic profile; close-ended questionnaire and multiple responses.124 respondents have filled the questionnaire. In the data analysis, researcher was applied simple percentage, frequency analysis and cross-tabulation between different variable. At last it can conclude that the company has to focus on the features of their application so that they can easily attract to investors. Some problems like hidden charges and non-dispatch of transaction statement which is faced by the investors in which the company should work on it. After all this company make most effective trading account application and easily satisfied their clients. Key Words: Trading account application, Convenient, Criteria, Awareness

Bank Credit and SMEs Financing in Nigeria

This study examined the extent SMEs are funded by deposit money banks in Nigeria. This was done through extensive descriptive, graphical and empirical analysis of Bank credit to SMEs data. The study generated and analyzed Bank credit to SMEs gap. It further explored Nigeria’s “financing gap” which measures the need of external funds for the corporate sector. Bank credit to SMEs was found to be decreasing over the period covered (i.e. 1992 – 2020). Bank Loans to SMEs as percent of Total Bank Loans reached a maximum of 47.7% in 2003 from where it had continued to decline to 0.56% in 2019 ended. Loans to Small Scale Enterprises as a percentage of Total Credit to the Private sector had been on the decline from a maximum of 27.04 % in 1992 to 0 0.54% in 2019. The analyzed SMEs Credit Gap shows that by 1992, SMEs Credit Gap was N113.664 million but by 2009, the SMEs Credit Gap has grown to N4261.46 billion and N7725.51 billion in 2016. The SMEs Credit Gap as at 2019 ended stood at N7565.51 billion. For the corporate sector, the financing gap is alarming as results reveal a financing gap of N3, 176,147,942,428.47 trillion in 2019. Thus, policies and actions aimed at reversing the downward trend in credit to SMEs as well as closing the financing gap should be intensified. Deposit money banks not just Microfinance banks should be encouraged to lend more to SMEs and remove all obstacles (hidden charges that increase the interest rate) while providing more technical assistance to SMEs. Keywords: SME Financing, Financing Gap, Bank Credit, SME contribution to GDP, Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-14-04 Publication date: July 31 st 2021

Cost-Benefit Implications in the Emerging Electronic Banking Space in Nigerian Financial Sector

The paper evaluated the cost-benefit implications in the emerging electronic banking space in Nigerian financial sector. Data were collected from CBN statistical bulletin and NDIC annual report. Twenty one (21) banks operating in Nigeria constitutes the population of the study and sample size of twelve (14) years was selected through purposive sample method. Auto-Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) was used to analyze the data after stationarizing it through Augumented Dicky Fuller (ADF) unit root test. The findings show that ATM, POS and MB have no significant effect while WIT has negative significant on banks’ profit. The findings further reveal that the combination of these variables has positive and significant effect on banks’ profit. We therefore recommend that banks should fully utilize the benefits provided through electronic banking by ensuring that more ATM terminals are provided in order to reduce crowd. Professionals that can constantly put the machine in order should be emlpoyed and there should be constant money in the machine to enable the banks make more profits and serve the people better at all times. POS should be made available to the users and at a reduced cost without hidden charges to enable people of different categories have access to them. This will help to generate revenue to the banks and reduce their cost of transaction etc.

A holistic understanding of the prospects of financial loss to enhance shopper's trust to search, recommend, speak positive and frequently visit an online shop

While studying Internet-based consumer's perspective, there appears to be no direct research on the mediating role of trust in the relationship between perceived financial risk and purchase intention. The existing literature is limited to fewer items of construct to measure perceived financial risk, which means that a comprehensive study is required on this topic. In this regards, this study measured perceived financial risk using 12 different items such as loss of credit card information, error-based purchases, no money-back guarantee, hidden charges, monetary loss, sales fraud, over-charged for product delivery fees, product delivery loss, over-charged online payments, high prices in comparison to traditional stores, low discounts in comparison to traditional stores, and wrong purchases. The study's proposed model is to highlight the role of trust in web vendors in the relationship between online consumers’ perceived financial risk and their purchasing intention. To test that proposed model, an online survey based on empirical study was conducted on Malaysian online consumers. From the sample size of 400, the results of this study revealed that perceived financial risk of online consumers does influence their trust in web vendors and online purchase intention. A consumer's intention to purchase online is also influenced by their trust in the web vendor. And there exist a mediating role of trust in web vendors in the relationship between perceived financial risk and online purchase intention. Such results offer evidence that e-business managers should consider their consumer's perceived financial risk while establishing their trust and purchasing intentions.

Financial Linkages and Active Poor Access to Microcredit in Tanzania and Kenya

This study explores the role of financial linkages in mitigating barriers to rural active poor for accessing microcredit. Through the interview to 34 Microfinance institutions and their 74 clients selected from Tanzania and Kenya, the exploratory research using the Content Analysis technique established that financial linkages have significantly contributed in increasing MFIs loanable funds. However, they have not mitigated the barriers to microcredit access including the types and size of collaterals, mandatory savings/deposits amount, higher-than-market interest rates, hidden charges, unbending repayment arrangement, short grace period and inflexible initial loan size which are among key barriers to rural active poor to access microcredit despite its availability. Findings implication appeals for objective national microfinance policy revisit to address aforementioned barriers in both countries if the sector is to benefit the rural active poor.

Lost in Transaction: Individual-Level Welfare Loss in Quickly-Circulating Durable Goods Markets with Planned Temporary Ownership

A new style of durable goods consumption through a large scale online redistribution marketplace (e.g. eBay and Yahoo! Auction), characterized by a relatively small degree of usage and a short-term ownership, is becoming increasingly popular these days. Yet, the welfare structures of such emerging markets have not been investigated. By using a unique dataset of quickly-circulating multi-use train ticket resale markets, and by investigating perfectly-substitutable goods, this short article models, estimates, and analyzes individual-level welfare loss in such rapidly-growing market sectors. Our analysis shows that individual-level welfare losses caused by search and resale costs are non-negligibly large, ranging from 3% to 15% of the new good price. We also find that such individual-level welfare losses, which could be considered as hidden charges, are largely heterogeneous across buyers with differing degrees of intended use. These losses are described as disadvantageous to users who demand light degrees of usage.

FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI PERILAKU BERALIH KONSUMEN DALAM MENGGUNAKAN KARTU SELULER

Moh. Joko SantosoPT. Astra Agro Lestari, TbkE-mail: m.joko.santoso@yahoo.co.idABSTRACTThis research aims to determine the factors affecting consumer switching behaviour on cellular card inMalang City. Consumer switching behaviour factors included customer service, knowledgeable employees,waiting time to get the customer service, error billing, network coverage, frequent network problem, newscheme, plan for different age,value added service, call rates, hidden charges, short message service charges,internet charges, recharge facilities, offered by competitor family and friend, fancy number, and rechargecost. Consumer switching behaviour in cellular card seen during the last six months. Respondents were cardusers who have used cellular card at least 6 months. The sum of respondent are 100 users who are selectedby purposive sampling. Data were collected by using questionnaires. The data analysed by using logisticregression enter method and backward stepwise. Based on the results of logistic regression analysis exemplifiedthat the constant significance value was less than 0.05. This meant that the factors of consumerswitching behaviour had a significant effect in cellular card. The factors affect consumer switching behaviourhad influenced at 37.6%, and 62.4% influenced by other factors outside this study. Finnaly, the fancy numberwas the most dominant factors which could influence consumer switching behaviour.Keywords: cellular card user, consumer behavior, switching behavior

Dodging Reform: As Some Credit Card Abuses are Outlawed, New Ones Proliferate

Faced with pending and proposed reforms in the form of the Credit CARD Act designed to protect consumers from a series of unfair charges, credit card issuers have established or expanded the use of at least eight hidden charges across more than four hundred million accounts. The pricing strategies discussed in this paper all appear to be primarily designed to take advantage of inattention, lack of knowledge, and documented behavioral biases exhibited by consumers. An increasing number of issuers have adopted a practice we have identified as “pick-a-rate,” where an issuer manipulates the variable rate index used with 117 million accounts currently affected. Hidden “pick-a-rate” pricing charges consumers APRs 0.3 percentage points higher on average than traditional pricing and results in a total cost to consumers of $720 million per year. Other rate-maximizing practices discussed that increase costs for cardholders include minimum finance charges and variable rate floors. Issuers have manipulated penalty fee structures to charge almost everyone (87 percent) the highest penalty fee possible, while taking advantage of cognitive limits to project the appearance of charging lower fees. Issuers are padding their other miscellaneous fees since the announcement of new Federal Reserve rules and passage of the Credit CARD Act and have disguised many of these charges. Fee changes include: adding inactivity fees, expanding the definition of an international transaction, and raising consumer costs by changing cash advance/balance transfer floors, ceilings, and related charges.

Determinants Analysis of Customer switching Behavior in Ghanaian Telecommunication Industry, An Exploratory and Inferential study

The Mobile Telecommunications industry in Ghana has over the years seen telecommunication firms such as Ghana Telecom (GT) now Vodafone Ghanahas faced a lot of competition from the its competitors. Even though Vodafone the then Ghana telecom was the incumbent but was over taken by Scancom Ghana (now trading under the brand name MTN).Due to the increase in competition among the telecommunication industries has made it important for the companies to focus on the factors customer retention. The paper outlines the causes of customer churn behavior as outlines in her study of service industry identification of additional factors to the telecommunication industry in Ghana, Susan Keaveney (1995). The main aim of the paper is to identify the most important factors that causes customer to switch and also access the relationship that exist between the factors and the switching likelihood. Using descriptive statistics, relative importance index of the various factors were also computed to obtain the most important factors. The paper then present chi-square test of independence between then customer switching likelihood against the factors that causes switching. The paper reported that the high tariff was the most important factor most Ghanaians consider when considering to switch from one network to another. hidden charges, service disruptions, unreliable help lines, inadequate or incomplete information provided by service providers and finally attractive features offered by other networks were the first five factors ranked to be the most important factors. the confirmatory test of independence using chi-square test of independent confirm the truth that the factors truly contribute to customer churn. The paper finally made recommendation the telecommunication industry in Ghana on their customer retention strategies.

Nested topological order

We introduce the concept of nested topological order in a class of exact quantum lattice Hamiltonian models with non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetry. The topological order present in the models can be partially destroyed by introducing a gauge symmetry reduction mechanism. When symmetry is reduced in several islands only, this imposes boundary conditions on the rest of the system, giving rise to topological ground-state degeneracy. This degeneracy is related to the existence of topological fluxes in between islands or, alternatively, hidden charges at islands. Additionally, island deformations give rise to extension of topological quantum computation beyond quasiparticles.

Fine Print and Hidden Charges

Every one of my grandchildren has computer skills that exceed mine. My parents didn’t have television until I was a sophomore in college. I don’t facebook, twitter, or have a cell phone. I even fail to answer e-mails on a regular basis. One could correctly state that I’m technology challenged, but months ago I did have high speed Internet. At that time, access to the Internet didn’t tie up my telephone and downloading a manuscript took seconds rather than hours. The access to high speed Internet was lost simply because too few people in the area subscribed to the service, so the Internet provider couldn’t profit by their offering. We received a nice letter stating that the service would be discontinued and that there were several other providers for high speed Internet operating in our area. The letter even provided a list of potential providers plus telephone numbers. After a day of going through the list, only two of the companies were willing to offer service to our location. One offered service via satellite and the other via a cell phone connection. We decided to go with the satellite provider. After three phone calls and an hour discussion with Ted, we had established a price for the required equipment, a monthly service fee, and a date and time for the installation. Access to high speed Internet was just around the corner, until the installer called. The price for the installation was simply a basic price. If the installer had to climb a ladder, the fee went up $100.00, and it went up another $100.00 if he had to deal with a crawl space or string wires in the attic. Additionally, the dish couldn’t be mounted on the garage roof, so the required pole would cost even more. We decided that the hidden fees were too much and transferred our attention to service via a cell phone connection. The cell phone service offered a 30-day risk free trial. That sounded good, especially after the recent experience with the installer. The sign up required a deposit, a credit check, and a two-year contract. The salesman even checked with the company office to be certain that service was available at our house. I warned him that several other providers had suggested problems at our location, but was assured that we were within two miles of their tower and the service would be excellent. We signed up. After all the trial was risk free, that is, until we found that the service didn’t reach our computer. The company cancelled our two year contract and basically refunded our deposit—except for a $25.00 restocking fee (part of the fine print). About a month later I received a bill for one month’s service. I pointed out that the service never worked, but was shown that regardless of the quality, we had service for the several days we were trying to use the system and therefore owed for a month’s service. So much for risk-free. The fine print was worse than the hidden charges—at least the installer informed us of the potential hidden charges and allowed us to cancel the service without expecting a fee. I still don’t have high speed Internet, but I do have a list of two companies that will never receive future business from me. I feel that I was lied to, cheated, and stolen from. A reliance on hidden charges and fine print is no way to do business. Society appears to be drifting away from honesty and moving toward saying whatever the customer wants to hear. The political arena is filled with liars who say that they ‘‘mispoke’’, cheats who sell their influence under the door of contributions and provide ‘‘ear marks’’ that become the fine print in numerous bills. An automobile dealer quotes a price, then adds transportation and dealer M. R. Louthan (&) Box 623, Radford, VA 24143, USA e-mail: macfran61louthan@yahoo.com

What's Draining Your Wallet? The Real Cost of Credit Card Cash Advances

Americans have come to rely on their credit cards as both a form of payment for purchases and a flexible way to borrow cash. The total amount of credit card debt is approaching a trillion dollars. Credit cards are a key source of revenue for financial institutions and usually among the most profitable loan products available today.Credit card pricing has become highly complex and increasingly difficult for borrowers to follow. Credit card issuers at one time charged a single fixed interest rate to all customers and now charge individual customers several different varying interest rates at once, some of which expire after a short time period, and some rates suddenly changing to 'penalty rates' under certain conditions. The number and importance of fees charged to consumers has also grown dramatically.While there has been significant public discussion of certain hidden fees that are common on credit cards, manipulating how consumers’ payments are allocated towards a borrower’s balance is another hidden charge that can impose significant costs on the borrower without their knowledge. Borrowers can have balances on the same card at several different rates at once such as a purchase balance, a temporary promotional - or 'teaser' - balance and a high-rate cash advance balance. By putting all of the payment toward the lowest rate balance (typically the purchase balance or teaser balance), issuers can in effect substantially raise the interest rates paid by borrowers.This report demonstrates that this ordering of payments or 'payment allocation' policy can be both expensive and confusing for credit card customers who, as a group, have little knowledge of the mechanics or cost. The data analyzed in this report shows that allocating payments to the lowest rate first is harmful to borrowers, highly deceptive, and inconsistent with risk-based pricing. More specifically the study finds the system is stacked against borrowers in the following ways:Payment allocation forces borrowers to pay the highest prices, as much as 7 percentage points higher. By paying the lower-cost purchase balance first, payment allocation increases the borrower’s other balances and effectively raises the total interest paid by the borrower. As a result of payment allocation abuses, some borrowers with credit card debt pay as much as $700 extra each year. Customers are unaware of the significance and impact of these hidden charges. Only 3% of borrowers surveyed have the knowledge and capacity to evaluate credit card companies’ payment allocation policies.Payment allocation distorts risk-based pricing. When all measures of risk are taken into account, our analysis reveals the opposite of risk-based pricing. Lower risk customers pay significantly higher interest rates compared to high-risk borrowers.

Problems and Suggestions Regarding Consumer Credit in Bangladesh

problems relating consumer credit scheme, which is identified by the consumer credit customers. These problems are high interest rate, high processing fees, lengthy procedures, difficult to proof actual income, huge documentations, delay response from the bank employee, quotation providing problems, lack of cordial behaviour, small frame of time, hidden charges, insufficient financial support, negative attitude towards low income group, late payment fees are so high, early prepayment fees are too high, clumsy application form, critical procedure and guarantor problems. Most of the customers of the relevant sample banks identified problems in their own banks.

Disclosure, Hidden Charges and Indexed Pensions

This paper analyses the cash flows of lifetime indexed pensions as one source of apparent super-profitability in the funds management industry. We conclude that, in practice, the difference between the amount paid for the pension and the present value of the pension income is huge - around 30% of the amount paid for the pension. With most products, the funds-management industry takes clients' funds, invests to the best of its ability and charges fees for those management services. Risk is borne by the clients. Lifetime indexed pensions are an exceptional product, where managers bear more aspects of risk. Naturally, there must be a payment or reward for bearing risk, but the size of that reward vis-a-vis the incidence of risk is open to question. More importantly the reward is, at present, substantially undisclosed. The next section of the paper describes lifetime indexed pensions and reports a small market survey conducted by the authors, while the next section reports the methodology used and analyses cash flows. The following section argues some possible rationalizations that may be proposed by financial institutions to justify the undisclosed 'fees' while the final section discusses policy issues and proposes minimal disclosure requirements.