Our reader wrote: the banking regulation currently in force enriches the banks instead of our brothers forced abroad.

Before Christmas, I decided to support the Szent Ferenc Foundation in Déva in my humble way. I sent five to five thousand forints to the center in Budapest and Élet Háza in Csobánka, the latter of which was founded by brother Csaba Böjte, in order to provide temporary accommodation for mothers-to-be with a difficult fate.

I have personal memories of the building complex. After the Second World War, the Margitliget castle housed a church girls' college, and a small elementary school operated next to the chapel. I grew up in Csobánká, and in the small school in Margitliget, I was first in the school year 1949/50, when the best grade was a seven. In 1950, during the Rákosi era, a special education institute was established from the castle, and the school was closed. Finally, I definitely wanted to support the Transylvanian facilities of the Szent Ferenc Dévai Foundation.

We took aid packages to the Foundation's homes in Déva and Szaszváros - in conjunction with our Transylvania vacation in 2008 - and saw the need live. So I also transferred five thousand forints to Déva.

I received the bank statement in January.

While the commission for the two domestic transfers totaled HUF 220, the international transfer commission for my HUF 5,000 support - through the OTP Déva department - amounted to HUF 17,154! In my indignation, I complained to MBH Bank in an e-mail:

"Can I ask the bank to investigate whether the commission is legal and fair?"

Quote from the response letter of the bank's complaint handling department in Békéscsaba:

"...according to the valid list of conditions of the Praktika Fix service package, the fee for HUF (occasional) transfers abroad with normal delivery is 0.84% ​​min. HUF 17,174."

I admit that I don't usually read banks' condition lists. I expected that the international commission rate would be several times the domestic one, but I didn't think about this robbery. So the bank answered the first part of my complaint, the amount of the fee complied with the rules, so it is legal. At the same time, he did not respond to the other part of my complaint, the fairness of the fee. This is a typical case of the legal but not moral case set out in jokes.

According to the bank's latest information, the international transaction fee is HUF 17,174 for up to HUF 2,044,524!

So the fee for transferring a hundred thousand HUF subsidy is HUF 17,174, which is brutal. In the case of half a million forints, it is a stretch, and I think there is a limit at one million forints where one could say that it does not matter. Deva is not in America or Africa. It is a city in the Carpathian Basin, 430 kilometers from Budapest by car, and 220 kilometers from Békéscsaba, where my complaint was judged. You don't get the money either, you just have to press a few keys on the computer.

Setting the international transaction fee at a minimum of HUF 17,174 is, in my opinion, unfair/immoral and hinders the free flow of capital, because it is brutal.

Furthermore, it is a matter of national political importance, as it also prevents us from being able to financially support our brothers and sisters separated from the motherland.

I sent my present complaint to the Magyar Nemzeti Bank on February 17 with the request that they review the problem I indicated in the entire banking sector. Until the hoped-for measure is taken, the request for cross-border transfers from the mother country must be removed from all websites! Because the regulations currently in force enrich the banks instead of our brothers forced abroad.

Pál Bartha ny. forest engineer

Reader letters do not necessarily reflect the position of the Civilik.Info editors.