ATM habits return

Users of automatic teller machines are already starting to drift back to old habits after only the second month of better publicised and slightly changed pricing.

Analysis by MWE Consulting of the monthly payments data from the RBA shows that following the introduction in the first week of March of the direct disclosure of fees for use of other
ATMs, the proportion of traffic at own ATMs increased quite sharply, moving from 54.2  per cent in February 2009 to 60.0 per cent in March.

The level dropped back slightly in April to 58.6 per cent, in line with the expectations of a number of analysts who expect a short term change in behaviour, followed by a return to the previous pattern.