Lender ING dumps global ATM fees, international purchase charges

IN a move that will save travellers and shoppers thousands, a major lender is dumping the dreaded overseas transaction fees. But will more banks follow?

DREADED global ATM fees and transaction charges for shopping online for overseas goods are being dumped in a move that will save consumers big and could see more banks follow.

International banking charges remain a bugbear for customers looking for bargains online and so too do charges for withdrawing cash overseas, but bank ING has today revealed it is removing a range of these despised fees.

The timely move comes just six weeks out from Christmas and could save customers making a $1000 online transaction anywhere between $30 to $50 in fees, analysis by financial comparison site RateCity has revealed.

ING customers will no longer be slugged fees when they transact overseas.

It also comes just two months after the nation’s big four banks all announced they were dumping the despised ATM fees — a move which took the big banks a long time to follow behind ING who have rebated their customers ATM fees since 2009.

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ING’s head of retail banking, Melanie Evans, said the latest raft of changes will reward hundreds of thousands of their customers and includes fee-free use of ATMs anywhere in the world.

“We are trying to offer value to customers who are using ING as their main bank,’’ she said.

ING Australia’s head of retail banking Melanie Evans said customers can shop online anywhere in the world fee-free.

“We think it’s a perfect time to announce this with Christmas and holiday season fast approaching because there’s nothing worse than getting that January statement and seeing the international transaction fees pop up on your statement.”

From today, ING will remove global ATM withdrawal fees making every ATM in the world fee-free for their eligible customers and they have removed international purchases fees which customers are slugged when using their cards to buy from overseas sites.

ATM fees vary but can be around $5 and international transaction fees are usually between 2 to 3 per cent of the total purchase cost.

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ING has never charged currency conversion fees.

The bank has more than 770,000 Orange Everyday customers which is the bank’s main day-to-day banking account and also credit card customers.

The deal will be available customers who deposit at least $1000 a month into this account.

RateCity spokeswoman Sally Tindall said this was “truly impressive and no other bank comes even close to doing this” and it would put pressure on other lenders to follow suit.

RateCity spokeswoman Sally Tindall said the move by ING was a big win for customers.

“If ING can do it, so can our big banks, they managed to cut ATM fees here at home, now let’s see what they can do abroad,’’ she said.

“If more Australians start switching to smaller lenders, the big banks will have no choice but to sit up and start listening.”

Consumer group Choice’s spokesman Tom Godfrey said “more companies should look to the same approach”.

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