Queuing to save $2

Bank fees, like petrol prices, spark irrational behaviour in consumers, a senior bank executive told The Sheet this week.

"ATM fees are really hitting a nerve with consumers now that exception fees are fading away as an issue," he said.

"People will drive a long way to save a few cents per litre on petrol and ATM fees spark the same kind of irrational behaviour - people just hate them."

The Sheet witnessed as much last week. At lunchtime in our local shopping district we paid two dollars to withdraw cash from a lonely Bank of Queensland ATM (owned and operated by Customers Limited) while barely 15 metres away twenty people queued for 15 minutes to use an ANZ ATM, presumably to avoid a foreign ATM charge.

Another 20 metres away about thirty people were queued up to use a Commonwealth Bank ATM.

Apparently we hate ATM fees more than we like our lunch hour.