This leaves the last bank standing with a disloyalty fee as Adelaide Bank. We have asked Adelaide bank if they will be changing their policy, especially given their Bendigo Bank cousins have dropped theirs, but no response has come through as yet.

Bank West has also confirmed they have dropped their disloyalty fee since our post on March 12th. We are still trying to get confirmation from NAB that they will drop their disloyalty fee. NAB’s fee tables still show a $0.50 disloyalty fee for most accounts, and NAB customer service did not answer our direct question on this issue (par for the course with many of these banks).

Looking over the Disloyalty Fee page, this leaves Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank as the most significant institution to continue charging a disloyalty fee. Their disloyalty fee stands at a whopping $1.50 until it changes to $0.10 on 1st April. The banks, which are part of the same group, say the change cannot flow through until the 1st April as they must give customers a minimum period of notification of fees changes. In my opinion, I am sure the customers of Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank would quite happily accept the fee change without the minimum notice period. Their shareholders may have a differing opinion.

Prior to writing this post, we still did not have confirmation of HSBC’s intention regarding disloyalty fees. One reader of ATM Fee Tracker Australia has pointed to a statement on HSBC’s FAQ on the reforms that indicates HSBC will not charge a disloyalty fee (below, accessed 12th March 2009). 

At what ATMs will HSBC cardholders be subject to direct charging?

When the ATM Reform becomes effective on 3 March 2009, all HSBC cardholders:

• will NOT be charged an ATM Operator Fee when using an HSBC ATM
• will NOT be charged an ATM Operator Fee when using a Westpac*** branded ATM.
• MAY be charged an ATM Operator Fee when using an ATM that is not an HSBC or Westpac*** branded ATM. This fee will be charged by the ATM Owner (NOT HSBC). HSBC cardholders will have the option of cancelling the transaction without any charges being incurred.

 After some deep searching on HSBCs website, I found confirmation that HSBC does not charge a disloyalty fee for using a foreign ATM in a document called “Personal financial services charges - your guide”. Also worth noting for HSBC customers is the sharing arrangement with Westpac, whereby HSBC customers can use Westpac branded ATMs (not ST George or BankSA) as if they were part of the HSBC ATM network.

Update 15th March 2008: Bank West has confirmed by email that is will not charge a disloyalty fee for using non-Bank West/CBA ATMs.

We have also confirmed that the other two Westpac group banks, St George and Bank SA, are no longer charging a disloyalty fee according to their respective websites. We had reported that both St George and Bank SA customers were going to be charged $0.25 as a disloyalty fee for using other operators ATM over and above the ATM direct charge fee. Of course, St George and Bank SA customers can also use any Westpac group ATM without incurring a foreign ATM direct charge.

This leaves NAB as the only one of the big four Australian banks still charging a disloyalty fee for processing foreign ATM transactions. Adelaide Bank, Bendigo Bank and Bank West are also charging a foreign ATM disloyalty fee. We are still waiting for confirmation from Bank of Quensland and HSBC.

The result of all this is we are seeing some trends and some bargains. Firstly, the trend appears to be $2.00 for cash withdrawals from most ATM providers and it is also $2.00 for a balance check at most banks.

More importantly are the ‘bargains’. The one that stands out is balance checks at rediATMs are FREE. We tried this out for ourselves as well as received information from other sources. Not sure what the deal is, but maybe it is a programming error or the rediATM people are genuinely nice guys. As for the best deals (apart from using your home bank’s ATMs) it depends on the scenario.

If you are just withdrawing cash the best deals are NAB and HSBC where it will cost you $1.50*. The other good option is rediATM at $1.75*. Most of the others providers are $2.00* which was the typical number for an inter-bank transfer before the reforms. Avoid Kwik Cash ATMs at $2.20*.

If you want to do a balance check and then a withdrawal, your best deal is a rediATM where it will cost you $1.75* all up. Other good choices are HSBC and NAB which will cost $2.00* at the ATM in total. Avoid doing this type of transaction at Adelaide Bank, ANZ, Bank West, Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Laiki Bank, St. George Bank, and Westpac. The independent operators are more reasonable than most banks for this scenario.

Finally, we have not been able to get any data for Bank SA, Indue Money or iCash ATMs. Bank SA is a hard one for us as we are in Melbourne and there are none of their brand of ATMs here. If you are in South Australia and have a card that is not from Bank SA, Westpac or St George please try out the transactions and let us know the fees. It won’t cost you anything if you select ‘no’ at the fee screen when it asks if you want to continue. Also, if you find an Indue, iCash or other ATM that we do not have in the ATM fee table, send us the information on their fees.

* - fee excludes your home bank’s disloyalty fee, if any

ATM Fee Tracker sources have also learned that Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank (which are one company) will also be charging their customers the standard transaction fee for foreign ATM transactions, currently set at $1.50, plus another $0.10 as of the 1st April 2009. So if you are an Adelaide or Bendigo bank customer you will get hit with the direct charge from the foreign ATM owner plus an extra $1.60 ‘disloyalty fee’ from 1st April 2009. See update below.

So much for direct charging adding transparency to the system. Not even the RBA has enough power over the banks for that.

If you want to know what your bank is charging for you to use a different provider’s ATM, refer to the table on the ‘Disloyalty Fees’ page of this website.

Update, 2nd March 2009 4:46PM EDT- We have had further confirmation from Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank that they will be charging $1.50 as a transaction fee (ie. ‘disloyalty fee’) until the 31st March 2009. From the 1st April, the fee for foreign ATM transactions will drop to $0.10, which is the amount the RBA chief Glenn Stevens has estimated as the maximum cost for the customer’s home bank to deal with a foreign ATM transaction. Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank say they cannot drop the fee until the 1st April because the have to give their customers 30 days notice of a fee structure change. Surely special dispensation can apply to a change that saves their customers money!