Sydney, 27 January, 2006: The Australian Bankers’ Association (ABA) says bank customers are not paying excessive fees for bank transactions and, in fact, the official figures show fees collected from bank customers are aligned with growth in volume of business.
    
As seen from the graph below, the proportion of bank fees to total assets is now at its lowest level on record.

ATMs
With respect to ATM fees, while the ABA does not have specific data and has not seen a copy of the report referred to in the media today, increases in fees collected appears to be primarily related to a change in the consumer pattern of using ATMs – an increase in the use of ‘foreign’ ATMs which are more costly than using the cardholder’s own bank ATM.

The number of ATM machines in Australia has also grown substantially, to more than 24,000 machines.  About 60% of these are owned and operated by private non-bank companies (APCA).

Tips for saving on ATM fees

• Minimise your transactions, try to take out sufficient cash to cover your needs for several days instead of using one every day.

• Use only branded ATMs of your bank.
• Take cash out with any EFTPOS retail purchase.