Subject:
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Australia Post users - beware of your bank!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.loc.au
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Date:
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Tue, 24 Sep 2002 08:51:29 GMT
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Viewed:
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362 times
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When is an EFTPOS not an EFTPOS? When it's at the post office and you bank with
the Commonwealth!
My two hobbies, Lego and family history, involve me in a lot of
sending/collecting of letters, small parcels and the occasional money order.
Consequently I am frequently in the post office.
Most of the time the dollar-value of my business at the post office is quite
small, a book of stamps, sending a small parcel, etc, and so I usually just pay
by cash. But from time to time, I use EFTPOS and sometimes when I used EFTPOS,
I take some extra cash out, just as I do at supermarkets etc. In the past, I
have had no problems with this.
No problems until I got my last bank statement, that is. I found I was being
charged bank fees for "teller-assisted withdrawals" ($2 each!). Since the
Commonwealth "simplified" their bank fees earlier this year, my account has a
fair number of "fee-free" transactions of an electronic kind (NetBank, EFTPOS,
ATM etc) but I get slugged if I use the branch, so I don't ever use the branch.
So why was I being charged this fee when I never use the branch???
Well, following some phone calls, the Commonwealth bank claimed that I had
withdrawn money using GiroPost (in which the Post Office acts as an agency for
the Commonwealth Bank) and hence is deemed to be a teller-provided service. But
I used EFTPOS, I said (having never even heard of GiroPost). "Oh no you didn't"
said the Bank.
So I went to the post office who initially said that unless I had gone in and
asked to withdraw money from my account WITHOUT doing a post office
transaction, then it should have been EFTPOS and not GiroPost. However, the
post office went through their transaction logs and found that, contrary to
their own expectation, it was showing as a GiroPost. The post office then
called their data processing centre and eventually the answer came back that
...
Even if you are paying post office for their postal services, once you ask for
extra cash, then the transaction is done as GiroPost and not as EFTPOS as the
Post Office EFTPOS does not have a cash-out facility as such, but rather it is
done by acting as the agency of the various major banks. However, none of the
customer staff seem to know this because, as far as they are concerned, the
EFTPOS terminal is being used and the cash-out facility appears to work (albeit
not by EFTPOS in the data processing centre).
So, if you are ever tempted to take cash out of an "EFTPOS" transaction at the
post office, you might want to check first what your bank deems you to be doing
and what delightful fees they may be charging for the privilege. Although my
problem with specifically with the Commonwealth, the lady at the Post Office
said that it was likely to be a similar situation with other major banks for
whom they are an agency.
If all you are doing is paying for postal services, then in theory the EFTPOS
should be done as a true EFTPOS.
Just for the record, the people at the Post Office were very nice about trying
to track down the problem and were quite stunned themselves to discover what
the bank was doing. In constast, most of the people at the Commonwealth Bank
(except one) were not at all helpful, and acted like I was totally stupid.
So, you have been warned -- the banks will do any trick they can to make you
pay bank fees.
Kerry
============
Kerry Raymond
kerry@dstc.edu.au
Proud to be LUGNET Member 599
www.lugnet.com/people/members/?m=599
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Australia Post users - beware of your bank!
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| I have permanantly boycotted useage of the Commonwealth bank for any of my banking needs. Their service has continuously been of a low standard, with waits of nearly an hour in some cases for an over the counter transaction of any kind. They slugged (...) (22 years ago, 26-Sep-02, to lugnet.loc.au)
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