Customers lash out at ANZ over withholding their money

Angry customers have hit out at ANZ, accusing the bank of deliberately making it difficult for them to access their own money and “interrogating” them about why they want it.

EXCLUSIVE

Angry customers have hit out at ANZ, accusing the bank of deliberately making it difficult for them to access their own money and “interrogating” them about why they want it.

In response to a news.com.au article about the tactics one of Australia’s Big 4 banks is using to drive customers out of branches, many have detailed their experiences trying to withdraw their own cash on deposit with ANZ.

ANZ customers have said it’s increasingly difficult to get access to their own money. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

One customer told news.com.au she was initially denied access to her money after she visited a local branch a few months ago to withdraw a “few thousand dollars” in cash to lend to a friend whose home had been flooded.

She said while at the branch she was told by the branch concierge that she needed to have “booked an appointment” to withdraw the money, and was told that the branch didn’t have enough cash to cover her request, which was for less than $10,000.

“I persisted and asked him to go and check or call the manager,” she said.

On discovery the bank could, in fact, facilitate the withdrawal, the customer said she was then quizzed by the teller about why she wanted the cash.

“The teller started interrogating me about why am I taking cash, why not do a digital transfer, am I being scammed? The entire transaction took over an hour and they made me feel like I was a criminal when in fact I was taking my own, hard-earned money.”

The customer added: “What I do with it is not the bank’s business.”

“ANZ doesn’t want to give their customers money or service, but I am glad they’ve had a record profit year on the back of their customers.”

Customers say what they do with their money isn’t the bank’s business. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett.

A second ANZ customer, who needed to transfer $40,000 for a property deposit, said she was unable to transfer the money via electronic banking due to daily transfer limits and had a request for her daily transfer limit to be raised to facilitate the transfer refused via telephone banking.

She then visited her local branch where she was initially told that transferring the money $10,000 at a time over a period of four days was the only way it could be done.

“After some push back from us they wanted to charge a $35 fee for the teller to undertake a transfer on our behalf.”

The customer then requested to withdraw the cash instead.

“The teller and manager, who was then involved, said that this was not possible, they would need at least a couple of days’ notice to give us the cash amount and then proceeded to advise how dangerous this would be.”

She added: “We stood our ground and demanded the cash and in the end they went and obtained it from the vault.”

“We then had to carry the cash 50m to the bank where the real estate agent held their account.”

She said her main objection is “that you are unable to obtain your own cash reserves and spend how you would like at a time of your choosing”.

A 2022 study revealed how Australians access cash. Picture: Reserve Bank of Australia.

Another customer told news.com.au that they were unable to withdraw more than $2,500 at the branch located at ANZ’s head office, in Melbourne’s Docklands.

The customer said the branch has recently reopened after renovations and is now a teller-less branch.

According to the ANZ website, “at these branches cash and cheque deposits and cash withdrawals can continue to be made by using our on-site Smart ATM and coin deposit machines”.

However, the customer’s attempts to withdraw $5,000 were stymied because the Smart ATMs have a maximum daily withdrawal limit of $2,500 per customer.

“The lack of customer service is diabolical. You can’t get service or access your own money!” the customer said.

ANZ's new branches might look nice, but they're missing one key thing – staff.

In response to the customer complaints, an ANZ spokesperson said: “For branch withdrawals of larger amounts of cash, an appointment is preferred as there can be additional cash logistics steps required by the branch.”

“This may include questions about the use of cash, which is an industry practice and an important control measure to help protect our customers from scams.”

In Australia, banks are required to report any cash transactions of $10,000 or more to a federal government tracking agency called Austrac.

The reason for this is to help uncover money laundering or other criminal activity and protect the integrity of Australia’s banking system.

In an effort of further precaution, the majority of banks have taken to asking any customers withdrawing $2000 or more for the reason they need the money.

ANZ said scam protections and Austrac requirements are behind the questions their staff ask customers about their reasons for large cash withdrawals. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carret.

But as well as efforts to reduce scams and criminal activity banks must also balance the social contract they operate under, which is that money on deposit can be used by the bank for financial gain but ultimately belongs to the customer, who should be able to access it whenever they need to.

The Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA), which is responsible for regulating Australia’s banks declined to comment on the issue when approached by news.com.au.

This is despite the fact that one of APRA’s stated purposes is to “ensure Australians’ financial interests are protected”.

While the use of cash in society is declining, for some transactions and some consumers, it remains an essential part of life, and its decline has sparked a backlash among consumers.

Macquarie Bank recently announced it would be phasing out cash altogether in 2024, while other Big 4 banks are also offering less cash services in branches.

Bank and telecommunications system outages, like the recent Optus outage, have revealed how vulnerable Australians can be without access to cash.