Commonwealth Bank: CBA introduces $3 fee when customers access cash from a branch, post office

Just weeks before Christmas, Australia’s biggest bank has announced it will hit customers with a $3 charge any time they want to withdraw funds at a branch.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia informed customers that those with Complete Access Accounts would be moved to a Smart Access Account.

From January 6, Commonwealth Bank will attach the $3 withdrawal fee when customers get cash from a branch, post office or by using the phone.

People under the age of 18, or those with a disability, will be exempt from the fee.

“We’re getting in touch to let you know that after reviewing our transaction accounts that are no longer on sale, we have decided to close our Complete Access Account,” Commonwealth Bank said in an email this week.

“On or after 6 January 2025, your account will change to a Smart Access account.”

Customers moved onto the new everyday account will also be charged a $4 monthly account keeping fee.

The announcement sparked outrage online, with many customers posting on the Commonwealth Bank X account sharing their disbelief that they would soon have to pay to get the money they had put into their accounts.

“$9.4 billion profit and CBA still has to gouge more from their customers. You use people’s money to make a profit and then charge them to withdraw cash, unbelievable. Changing banks today,” one social media user wrote.

Defending its decision, the bank told customers: “To clarify, withdrawals from CBA ATMs remain free and do not incur a fee when withdrawing using an Australian bank card,” adding that if the customer was referring to the new fee to access cash over the counter that they were “correct”.

In the bank’s most recent full-year announcement, Commonwealth Bank confirmed it had spent $410 million on cash services for the financial year ending June 2024, which included $310 million to keep cash on hand for customers.

Commonwealth Bank denied plans to scrap cash all together, taking to their social media account to say: “We know access to cash remains important and we certainly have no plans to phase out ATMs or stop providing cash.”

The move of making accessing cash through a human teller more expensive follows Macquarie Bank’s move to scrap cash services altogether.

From May 17, customers have been unable to access over-the-counter services at Macquarie for cash or cheques.Despite only having a handful of branches, the decision was not widely welcomed by Australians.

The move away from cash services reflects Australia’s decreasing use of the legal tender.

In 2022, the Reserve Bank of Australia found that cash payments accounted for just 13 per cent of the number of transactions.

To access cash, the Consumer Payments Survey found ATMs were used for 72 per cent of the total number of cash withdrawals.