This morning Commonwealth Bank announced it was doing the right thing by Australians and forgoing the profitable (and annoying) ATM fee when withdrawing cash from a bank that is not your own. Now just hours later, Westpac and ANZ have also followed suit. This is a very welcome change and while NAB still haven’t announced, expect it to occur shortly, now there’s an acute pressure on them as the only remaining one of the big four Australian banks who still charges for this.
Update
NAB has joined the list of banks who will cull the ATM transaction fee, meaning all the 4 major banks are now on board.
NAB Chief Customer Officer of Consumer Banking and Wealth, Andrew Hagger said,
We’re pleased to now extend this so that all Australians, regardless of whether they bank with NAB or not, can use any of our ATMs and not be charged a cash withdrawal fee.
This is a good outcome for customers. We know it has been frustrating for them to be charged to withdraw their own money from an ATM, and the change we are announcing today will benefit millions of Australians.
CommBank have 3,400 branded ATMs across Australia, the largest of any Australian bank. ANZ have 2,300 and Westpac have a nationwide ATM network of more than 3,000 ATMs which includes Westpac, St.George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne ATMs. Westpac customers have enjoyed the use of these other provier’s ATMs free of charge, but its not yet clear how many smaller banks will drop the fee for all Australian customers. If NAB does join the party, they’ll add another 3,400 ATMs in over 2,600 unique locations to the mix.
Personally my transactions are almost exclusively electronic in 2017, so my need from cash from an ATM is almost non-existent. The Reserve Bank data shows there were more than 250 million withdrawals at foreign bank ATM customers last financial year, this translates to more than $500 million in revenue that is being forgone by this very change.
ANZ Group Executive Fred Ohlsson said,
“While we had been actively working on how we provide fee free ATMs for our customers, we have decided to remove these fees all together
from October. We know ATM fees are one of the most unpopular and while our customers have benefited from our network of ATMs across the country, this is another example of acting on customer feedback as well as genuine reform from the industry,”
ANZ’s change will be implemented in early October 2017.
Westpac Chief Executive, Consumer Bank, George Frazis said,
“We want all Australians, whether they are Westpac Group customers or not, to benefit from one of Australia’s largest ATM networks. This will make it more convenient for millions of Australians to conveniently obtain cash, with no additional fees. It will particularly assist Australians in rural and regional areas.”
More information at ABC.net.au
