ASB, Kiwibank and BNZ join ANZ and Westpac in scrapping ATM fees

The change will come into effect on 31 March for ASB customers. Photo/File.

Following yesterday's announcement that ANZ and Westpac would discontinue fees on other banks' automatic teller machines, ASB, Kiwibank and BNZ have now taken similar steps.

An announcement from ASB said the bank would absorb the $1 fee currently charged when ASB customers used ATMs owned by other banks.

"We support industry moves to eliminate this fee," said Russell Jones, ASB's executive general manager for retail banking.

"This change will benefit our customers and provide them with a greater level of freedom and flexibility to decide when and where to access their money."

The change will take effect from 31 March for ASB customers.

Kiwibank has similarly dropped the $1 charge, but this will only be effective from 15 April.

BNZ director of retail and marketing Paul Carter said that from April 1 customers would no longer be charged for using other banks ATMs.

"With this industry-wide change, customers of all the major banks will now have the chance to use the 600-strong BNZ ATM network, which includes our new fleet of Smart ATMs, at no cost," Carter said.

Yesterday, data from ANZ said the shift would remove fees from almost 8 million transactions a year.

Antonia Watson, the ANZ New Zealand managing director of retail and business banking, said the bank had been receiving more and more feedback from customers that didn't think the fee was fair.

"We've decided to respond to that feedback and will absorb the cost of those transactions levied to us by other banks," said Watson.

"Banking is a competitive business and we want to ensure customers continue to choose us because they know we're committed to doing the right thing by them."

This sees all the major banks adopt a policy that has long been offered by TSB. A spokesperson told the Herald that TSB has always had the stance of not charging customers ATM fees.

"We offer the fee-free status across all of our everyday accounts. This means that our customers can use their TSB bank card to make ATM transactions at non-TSB Bank ATMs without incurring a charge from us," said a TSB spokesperson.

"We also do not charge non-TSB Bank customers for use of our ATMs. Although some other banks may, in turn, charge their customers for using external ATMs, we don't wish to prohibit people from using our ATMs."

Note: this story has been updated as further information has become available.