By IANS,
Sydney : Australians spend $636 million a year in fees for withdrawing money from ATMs that do not belong to their bank, the government said.
Nearly 40 percent of all cash withdrawals a month are from other ATMs, meaning people shell out a whopping $53 million a month on fees, the Herald Sun reported.
The Reserve Bank of Australia report said banks make more on transaction fees than any other product.
In 2009, banks earned a combined $1.64 billion from transaction fees, compared to $1.24 billion from home loans.
Damian Smith, chief executive of financial comparison site RateCity, said Australians pay the banks “more than necessary” to access their own money.
“Accessing your own money from a transaction account should be free and all banks have a network of ATMs you can use that generally won’t cost you anything for at least a certain number of transactions per month,” he said.