Financial institutions in Australia are charging up to $2 for cancelled ATM transactions and are even billing consumers if they put in the wrong PIN number, says the Australian Consumers' Association.
The organization said that fees were being charged for a range of issues including, the incorrect entering of PIN numbers, selecting the wrong type of account, having an insufficient balance and the customer aborting the process before completing the transaction.
The organization’s senior finance policy officer Dr Nick Coates said the charges represented a new low in banking fees.
It illustrates the upward creep of retail banking fees and a creative development in the innovation of hidden fees, he says in an upcoming issue of Consuming Interest.
This is the bottom line: although no actual transaction goes through, a fee is charged. Most consumers do not know these fees exist, the circumstances under which they are charged, or how much they can be charged. The fee simply turns up on their account statement at the end of the month in addition to any regular transaction and administrative fees.