ATM fees will continue to hit Australian customers as some operators refuse to drop their fees

DESPITE the good news at the weekend, ATM fees are not completely dead and buried in Australia — some operators will continue to sting customers.

GREEDY owners of ATMs in pubs and clubs will not buckle to the pressure of the major and remove fees for customers to access their own cash.

This week the big four banks all announced they would be dumping the most-hated banking charge — ditching the $2 ATM fee for non-customers.

But independent operators including Banktech, which owns 2700 machines nationally, said they were not budging on ATM fees yet and would wait to see the full impact of the big four banks ditching fees.

The Commonwealth Bank was the first of the big four banks to announce it was ditching ATM fees.

Banktech’s general manager Peter Blackett said they were still working with their customers including hospitality venues such as pubs and clubs to work out whether they would adopt any price changes.

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“It’s hard to know whether we continue the same way we are or whether we make changes, ultimately we are deploying ATMs in these locations to provide a convenient service to customers,’’ he said.

“Unlike a bank we don’t have cardholders or customers out there so we need to have a revenue stream to keep our businesses going.

“We expect there will still be a need for ATMs in these locations.”

Independent ATM operators will still continue to charge customers fees with making withdrawals.

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In many instances revenue made from independent ATMs is divided between the venue and the ATM owner.

Australians paid out about $500 million in fees in the past year for withdrawals from ATMs owned by institutions other than their own, analysis has shown.

In Australia around 55 per cent of the more than 31,000 ATMs are independently owned.

While the big four banks have all dumped ATM fees, CBA’s subsidiary bank, Bankwest, has failed to do the same but it considering follow suit.

Bankwest will continue to charge customers who do not bank with them ATM fees.

“We are looking at the opportunity to follow CBA on this change and we will update customers as soon as possible,’’ the bank’s spokesman said.

And it remains unclear whether smaller financial institutions will also do the same and dump fees, the Customer Owned Banking Association said yesterday.

“The decision by the major banks will be studied in detail by COBA members and appropriate business decisions will be taken by individual institutions,’’ the COBA spokesman said.

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