Many customers are criticizing some major banks for what they see as improper charges and fees for basic transactions.

The complaints started after some banks imposed "counting fees" on people depositing coins into their accounts.

Most of the banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and Bank of China (BOC), recently introduced such fees, the Beijing Times reported Monday.

The charges vary from bank to bank. For example, ABC charges 5 yuan for the first 200 coins, and an additional 1 yuan for each 100 coins thereafter. Those who deposit fewer than 200 coins are not charged the extra fee.

If a customer deposited 200 fen coins, the person must pay the 5-yuan charge even though he only deposited 2 yuan into his account.

A woman surnamed Cao was charged 6 yuan ($0.9) when she deposited 300 coins into her ABC account, the report said.

"The bank explained to me that they would charge a counting fee if I deposit more than 200 coins," Cao said. "But when I deposited coins in March, they didn't charge me such kind of counting fee."

An employee in the client services department at ABC said they introduced the fee on April 1, which stipulated that the bank should charge a counting fee from private clients who deposit more than 200 coins.

The ABC has been charging corporate clients such fees for years, and it is the first time that the bank is charging private clients, said the employee.

The new fee was met with criticism from the public, given the fact that the banks already charge various service fees.

An online survey conducted Monday by sohu.com found that nearly 90 percent of participants oppose such a fee, saying that the banks already slap many fees on transactions.

Yuan Rongsheng, father of a 7-year-old girl in Wulian county of East China's Shandong Province, told the Global Times that his daughter collects coins and now she may be forced to stop since her hobby will be charged.

"If my daughter take the money she saved for years to the bank to deposit, she will feel dissatisfied when she is charged a counting fee," Yuan said.

Zheng Huaying, 26, an employee at an ICBC branch in Shandong Province, complained to the Global Times Monday that counting coins and small-value bank notes take too much time.

"Once I spent the whole morning counting the small-value bank notes for just one client," Zheng said. "And many of the other clients have to wait."

Zheng said she has not enforced the fee because she wanted to be considerate.

(Global Times May 25, 2010)