The Banks are always bleating to their customers about reducing the global carbon footprint. I get the message on my ASB statements with giant amounts of black ink on a message within the statement that I should stop paper statements and go online all the way and "Save the World".

Recently I made an order for a small amount of bonds. Guess what, they still seem to be in the dark ages about the purchasing, notifying and the fee charging process.

I could not place the order through my ASB online trading, I was charged 0.7% of the $ value in fees because I was forced to use a telephone ordering system. I was informed that an email was not possible for the transaction, it was to be sent to me by snail mail.

Small investors are always encouraged to invest in the financial markets, but we are never given any reasonable incentives to do so I feel.

So, in this electronic age I will have no idea whether my order was completed until at least 3- 7 days after the event, all this for a premium fee.
Why are the fees for bonds not set "As a $ amount per Transaction" rather than on the $ amount invested, because after all we are effectively being sold money, and the fee can eat badly into the return on the bond in this low interest rate environment?

Maybe I will stick to bricks and mortar investments and manage them myself; stopping third party managers gouging my hard earned wealth!