20 Feb 2018

Major banks to ditch 'unfair' ATM fee

1:30 pm on 20 February 2018

The five major banks are scrapping the fee charged when withdrawals are made from another bank's ATM.

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Photo: Creative Commons / Pixabay / 3dman_eu

Watchdog Consumer NZ has been urging the banks to remove the $1 dollar fee, describing it as "unfair".

ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac and Kiwibank have all announced they will scrap the fee over the coming weeks.

Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin said that was the best possible outcome.

"The bank (ANZ) found people regarded the fee as unfair because even though they were using another bank's ATM, they were still accessing their own money," she said.

ASB executive general manager for retail banking Russell Jones said it also supported removing the fee.

"This change will benefit our customers and provide them with a greater level of freedom and flexibility to decide when and where to access their money," he said.