Commonwealth Bank pauses plans to charge customers $3 fee to ...
44 minutes agoWed 4 Dec 2024 at 1:26am
Both sides of politics have pressured the bank to reverse its decision to charge customers to withdraw cash. (ABC News: Margaret Burin)
The Commonwealth Bank has paused its plans to charge customers a $3 fee to withdraw their own money at bank branches around the country.
The bank — which is Australia's biggest — announced on Tuesday that it would charge customers who had a "Complete Access" account a $3 fee to withdraw cash at bank branches and post offices.
The bank had been under pressure to scrap the fee altogether from both sides of politics, with the federal government describing it as a "terrible decision" that was a "kick in the guts" to customers.
In a snap media conference called on Wednesday afternoon, the bank's head of retail banking services, Angus Sullivan, apologised for poorly communicating the decision.
"We feel that we didn't get the communication right on this, and we want to take a more individual approach," he said.
Mr Sullivan said the bank would pause the migration of its customers over to its "Smart Access" accounts for six months for around "10 per cent" of its customer base who are using the assisted fee withdrawal service, or would be "worse off" from the changes.
He explained that for the remaining 90 per cent of customers who remained on a "Complete Access" account, the migration to a different account would put them in a "better position".
In particular, the bank said customers would be paying a lower monthly account fee, with those with a Complete Access account paying a $6 fee, while those with a Smart Access account only paying a $4 fee.
However, the monthly account fee is waived if certain concessions are met, including if $2,000 is deposited into the account each month, or if customers have a pension.
Asked whether pressure from the federal government had changed the bank's mind, Mr Sullivan denied the suggestion.
"This is based on us listening to our customers and making sure that we do the best that we can by them," he said.
"We feel we didn't get the communication right on this, so we've paused, and we want to take a different approach.
"So it's very much from listening to our customers and making sure that we adapt our approach as is helpful."
