The ATM usage fee of 2 to 2.5$ per transaction when you are using other bank ATM irritates me. When banks in countries like India can allow their customers to use any ATM for free, why are Australian Banks failing to stay competitive and provide the same level of service to their customers.
The Irritating ATM Usage Fee
usbc activist on 01/11/2016 - 17:55
Last edited 01/11/2016 - 19:29 by 1 other user
Last edited 01/11/2016 - 19:29 by 1 other user
Comments
Whats wrong with comparing with another country's banks? Why australians do not deserve same level of customer service? Can't they learn how they are managing their costs and try to do the same.
Because you're cherry picking certain things. All good to go 'oh, I'd love it if we did this like India, this like China, this like Italy, …' but it can't be that way…
I'd love it if we did this like India,
I dunno, that whole caste system thing sounds pretty good to me…
Competition is the way consumers get better services and value. Countries, companies, corporations, financial institutions compare, rank and organize all sorts of data all the time. People are mentioning, ING and few other banks are already giving this service. Happy to know this. If some country is doing a better job at something, there is nothing wrong in quoting it as an example. It may or may not be possible to do it in Australia, but the way people are responding is like it is a great mistake even to compare. By the way, I asked this question to westpac official twitter handle and here are their responses:
ATM Direct Charging is a response to ATM reform by request of RBA set in 2009, and fee is displayed before withdrawl. Hi, thanks for your feedback. Fee is for us to break even with costs involved here for conveniently placed 24/7 ATMs!
Genuine bank fees for a genuine dude.
You are the kind of customer, our oligopolistic banks want.
The charge that anoys me is .5% for using paypass. ITS MY FREAKING MONEY!!! Why should I pay credit charges to use my money… Grr
Edit: this is at aldi
Because you're putting it through as Credit rather than Cheque or Savings
Nowhere else ive shopped charges me to paypass, just seems like a gouge
Aldi are just passing on the cost to the consumer rather than copping it themselves and adding to prices of their groceries.
I work in IT for a large company with retail stores in Australia and at times handle coding the software for the credit card transactions. We get charged millions of dollars in credit card fees each year (every single transaction from every credit card provider has a cost per transaction), but we happen to just cop it (like most places do) and add the cost into our pricing algorithms for our products.
Aldi just happen to make the choice to keep their prices as low as possible and pass on the cost to any customer who uses a credit card/paypass so as not to affect all customers.@Brendoo: Aldi are just passing on the cost to the consumer rather than copping it themselves and adding to prices of their groceries.
No, they are charging a premium on top of the actual institution's fees rather than treating it like all the other operational costs in their business and adding the profits to their pile of cash in the Caymans/BVI,
Would it be reasonable to charge you a fee for opening the door, running the lights, transporting goods to the shop, storing them, etc. ?
There is a reason those guys became the world's richest people- and the banker's best mates despite these practices: They make money out of every mouthful a great deal of the population takes, not just the transactions they make…
Can you eli5 the difference between cheque and savings credit and how does it work? ie does credit need to be paid back manually through a teller or online website or is it automatic say taken out of your savings at the end of the month?
I accidentally tapped my westpac concession choice card at Coles for an under $100 spend ie no pin required and was wondering if I had accidentally chose the wrong option or incurred some fee before the nice Coles lady slowly but surprisingly quickly explained it to me.
Tl;dr teach me bank account cards and how to use them and what to do etc.. also fees.. thank you
Tl;dr teach me bank account cards and how to use them and what to do etc.. also fees.. thank you
That's a bit concerning for anyone who is older than high school age, to explain to them how credit/debit cards work :/
If you have a savings account and debit card but press credit it puts it through the credit network which means the funds are not immediately transferred to the retailer and they pay a higher transaction fee. It doesn't effect you except when you check your account statement online you will see the funds as 'pending' for a few days and they won't get a proper entry until the funds clear a few days later, this can make it harder to track when you bought something looking back at the statement since it will appear a few days after your purchase. The credit network gives you a bit more security though since if something goes wrong with the transaction (overcharged, product is not as described) you can raise it with your bank and they can stop the transaction before it clears.
I know.. call it an irrational fear. If it helps I am seeking counseling but money and finance has always scared me. Also I have been hermitting myself to games movies TV shows works events technology and etc for the past 10-15 years so haha yeah lol just need some clarification to be 110% sure and not mess it up again or anymore as it's not like computers or general labour work stuff where it I stuff it up I can just try it again
Cheers thanks Agret! So if I use savings or cheque how does that affect me on my bank statement. And usually which option is the safest out of the two ie if I get wrongly charged does cheque take longer than savings or accrue less charges? Haha sorry still a total noob at financial banking details
@AlienC: I'm not sure how cheque would work, the only time I've seen it used is people with multiple accounts in the same bank. For instance on my mum's card if she press savings it comes out of her account but if she presses cheque it comes out of her joint account with my dad.
Ah I see np
I only asked because the westpac customer representative at my local branch where I opened up my new account said to use cheque when using my card which kind of caught me by surprise as I had always used savings previously so haha yeah lol
Cheers thanks for your reply it means and helps a lot
Any use of Paypass goes thorough the credit system. Other merchants absorb the fee, Aldi chooses to pass it on.
So wait if I use westpac's version of paypass say at Coles or woolies it is fine ie I won't get charged a .5% fee? But if I use it at aldi I will get charged a .5% fee so a $50 spend equals a $50 spend plus $0.25 fee?
Correct. To avoid the fee, select "CHQ" to pay via your Westpac card.
(In answer to your previous question, Westpac links your account to "CHQ" even if it isn't an actual cheque account. Most banks link account as savings. Just a Westpac thing to confuse.)
@AlienC: Sometimes the person will ask which account, or will simply hand you the device for you to select account. From there, (At Aldi) the machine will ask if you want cash out, the next step is to enter PIN Number.
Once approved remove card and your done.
Ah sorry no I meant accounts wise like do I have to transfer funds to my chq account or something or do any in bank transactions to sort out my chq spendings kind of like dealing with a credit account..
Tl;dr how does a cheque account and a savings account differentiate money wise account wise and spending wise
@AlienC: The transaction won't approve if you don't have the money in the applicable account before you make the transaction.
So all your sorting out must be done prior to the transaction.
Do you have just one account or two different accounts linked to Westpac card.
If two accounts the Chq/Sav is just a name to tag the different accounts.
If just one - Westpac calls this "CHQ" even though there maybe no cheque book attached to the account.BTW - Westpac is not a good choice of this type of account.
What bank would you recommend?
Sorry I am stilo very fresh and brand new when it comes to the financial sector
What OzBargainer does not have ING Direct Everyday? No ATM fees anywhere in AU.
But I agree with you mate $2/$2.50 is bullshit.
You must be the only ozbargainer without an ING account..
why is this even a post? why isn't OP smarter with their choice in cards?
why are Australian Banks failing to stay competitive
The problem is you've bought the neo-conservative fairy tale to the voters about competition delivering cheaper prices to everyone when the reality is it doesn't.
Seriously, use ING.
I can't really say that where it particularly performs worse than any one of the big four. The ATM fee rebate arrives immediately. The flexible saving rate is significantly higher than CommBank's. Their apps and homepages are great. Their telephone customer service is responsive and helpful.
The point that they don't have any branch and you have to deposit cash in an AusPost might come off as an annoyance, but chances are that there's a post office closer to you than any of the big four's branch.
Shame they don't have credit card. Otherwise I'll be all with them.
Interesting….. What about larger cash withdrawals. For a couple thousand, how do you get on then? From post office?
Good question. I haven't run into such a scenario that I need to withdraw that much money in cash. I don't think it is possible to get that much cash from post office either, or at least not without some sort of appointment or reservation. When you go depositing cash at a post office, they just directly chuck the banknotes into the till, so that I doubt they will be able to prepare that much on scene.
I will still argue it's a pretty unlikely scenario to withdraw that much in one go. But regardless, this might be a point that ING is unable to offer.
Credit card coming soon I believe. Stay tuned…
OP
why are Australian Banks failing to stay competitive and provide the same level of service to their customers.
Because they are being "competitive". They compete with each other and the fees are the same, so unless one breaks ranks - and why would they do this? then the fees will stay.
In other words they wont give away anything they dont need to.
You forgot to mention they also steer duh gummints by paying them large amounts of dollars to have meetings with the right people such as the ones creating policy where they explain how they want things such as high interbank ATM fees because that discourages competition.
Use ING or other banks with free ATM access. Personally Ive never had to withraw cash, just do cashouts in stores
Seriously it's not as if you have no alternatives:
Use your bank's ATMs.
Use ING (but requires $1000+ deposit every month).
Cashout at Woolies or Coles.
Some cards are fee free for other ATMs, e.g. Citi, ME.
Some credit unions have fee free arrangements with some banks.
You don't deserve to be an OzB'er if you haven't done your homework.
+1 vote for ING. everytime I walk by a woollies and it's not busy I do the 200 bucks cash out for 50cents bonus, my way of "getting back".
OP needs moar ING
genuinedude
You are assuming all ATMs are owned by banks, which is not the case.
In providing this service, the ATM owner has to pay for rent (typically $20K pA), electricity, insurance, security, repair and maintenance plus they need a return on their investment to justify making the service available.
No one is forcing you to use ATMs owned by others or your own bank for that matter.
choose your banks wisely. I'm with Westpac so Westpac AND St. George. That's more then enough coverage IMO.
Stay losing other banks.
I was in agreement with your post, until you had to compare it to another country, then it came across like just another rant forum post.