ATM Fee Tracker Australia » HSBC

NAB, Bank West drop disloyalty fees

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:49:16 +0000

According to John Rolfe at the Daily Telegraph, both the NAB and Bank West have dropped the disloyalty fee for their customers using foreign ATMs. We have asked both banks to confirm this is the case, as their websites’ bank fees information still show a charge to their customers (for most accounts) to use a foreign ATM. The Disloyalty Fee page will be updated once the banks confirm.

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.

Westpac Bank drops ATM disloyalty fee

admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:52:05 +0000

Westpac bank, the most profitble bank in the world, has now decided to take a profit hit by doing a complete back-flip on their ATM disloyalty fee. The disloyalty fee for Westpac customer’s using a foreign ATM, which we reported Westpac had moved from $2.00 earlier in the week to $0.25, is now NIL. So Westpac customer’s using other operator’s ATMs will now only be hit with the direct charge fee from that other operator. Also, Westpac bank customers can use any Westpac group group ATM (ATMs branded Westpac, St George or Bank SA) without any direct charge.

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.

ATM Direct Charging - 1st Day Wrap Up

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:55:40 +0000

Now that we have seen out the first day of ATM Direct Charging it’s time to review the wash-up. By the end of the day, we were able to visit ATMs from most of the banks and many of the independent operators plus we received additional or confirmation data from other sources (thanks for the input). We even found a bank that was not on our original list! The ATM fee table has been updated accordingly.

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