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