Commonwealth Bank urged to rethink 'terrible decision' to charge cash withdrawal fee
www.abc.net.au
Some Commonwealth Bank customers who withdraw cash at branches or post offices will soon be charged $3 for the privilege, after the bank announced it was migrating a legacy everyday account to a newer offering.

I hope this inspires a massive migration off CBA and a rollback of the policy. Because if it doesn’t, the other banks will be sure to follow.

  • Nath@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
    201·
    9 days ago

    Even if it is only under certain circumstances, charging customers to access money is appalling behaviour. Once upon a time, banks paid us to keep our money in their establishment. Now that our society has evolved to the point where we literally can’t function without a bank account somewhere, the banks treat us like they don’t need us.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 days ago

      However, the account also includes an “assisted withdrawal fee”, where customers taking money out at bank branches, post offices or by phone are charged $3 per withdrawal.

      I’d rather not defend banks, but it appears the fee only applies when staff are involved. Withdrawing at an ATM or EFTPOS at checkout seem to remain free.

      They should be legally required to provide free assisted withdrawals for seniors, the disabled, and post office withdrawals when an ATM is not within a few km’s, but I don’t think it’d be an issue for everyone else.

      Personally I don’t care about this, however I think most bank fees should be illegal, period; especially insufficient balance and all generic monthly fees. Nowadays most of these things are fully-automated, and I’d bet the cost of maintaining an inactive or low activity account are near-zero; the fees are just a tax on the poor, financially illiterate, and busy.

      • MutilationWave@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 days ago

        For anyone who doesn’t know, you can go into your bank account settings and disable “Overdraft Protection”. Once you do this, your transaction will be declined if there are insufficient funds instead of overdrafting your account and charging you $30 or whatever it is now.