Fee free ATMs in Australia

soco1

I'll be using my halifax clarity card to withdraw cash through ATMs in Australia and wondered if there are any banks to aim for or specifically avoid so I don't get charged extra for using their machines.

I know when I was in the Caribbean some banks charged fees around $2 for non customers whilst others didn't so was jus a case of knowing which banks to avoid!

Cheers.

mgdavid

soco1 wrote: »

I'll be using my halifax clarity card to withdraw cash through ATMs in Australia and wondered if there are any banks to aim for or specifically avoid so I don't get charged extra for using their machines.

I know when I was in the Caribbean some banks charged fees around $2 for non customers whilst others didn't so was jus a case of knowing which banks to avoid!

Cheers.

I'm not with Halifax but I'd expect their website to tell you which overseas banks they have affiliation with.

zerog

The only alliance I know of is that UK Barclays customers won't get charged by westpac and St George ATMs

It would be helpful to make a list of which countries ATMs charge and how much

soco1

Spoke to halifax and they said they had no alliance with any institution in Australia. Not part of the Global ATM Network which Barclays are so case of try different ATMs and see if i get charged!

claire16c

Yes I'm with Barclays & we always used west pac atms. Lots of them will charge you otherwise so I guess just try to take out as much as you can in one go!

soco1

Really surprised Halifax didn't know whether any banks in Australia were fee free for cash withdrawals using their card.

zagfles

It's unlikely that any bank would specifically not charge Halifax customers, the ATM is likely to either be fee free for all MasterCards or charge for all. In NZ I used the Clarity a lot and there was never any ATM fee.

zerog

zagfles wrote: »

In NZ I used the Clarity a lot and there was never any ATM fee.

That's interesting. AFAIK all Australian ATMs charge $2 unless you are a customer, though some financial institutions will reimburse the charges

zagfles

zerog wrote: »

That's interesting. AFAIK all Australian ATMs charge $2 unless you are a customer, though some financial institutions will reimburse the charges

There's a difference between what customers with a domestic ATM card will be charged for using another bank's machine, and what a foreigner making a withdrawal on a VISA/Mastercard will be charged. Most of the ATM usage fees articles such as this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATM_usage_fees concentrate on the former.

If you read stuff like that wiki article you might expect to be charged in Poland, Sweden, Germany, Spain but I've used ATMs in all those countries loads of times and never been charged.

When I was in Germany some ATMs I used had a complicated list of charges at the side - my understanding (my German isn't that good) was that I'd be charged EUR4 or so for the withdrawal. I wasn't charged anything, the charges probably just applied to German bank customers.

In fact I've never been charged for making ATM withdrawals anywhere, ever. I know some countries like Thailand and US do charge, but not anywhere I've been in the last 15 years which is quite a lot of countries.

soco1

Thanks for the info Zagfles and Zerog.
Only place I've ever been charged was BVIs but only some of the banks charged so fees were easily avoided.

Hopefully I'll find there are no charges after all.