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Australian ATM operator provides surcharge-free ATM access to countrys flood victims

Australians devastated by weeks of heavy floods will have for a time surcharge-free ATM access.

January 19, 2011

Australians whose lives have been devastated by weeks of heavy floods will have for a time surcharge-free ATM access.

Customers ATM, Australia’s largest ATM operator, and Bank of Queensland, one of the country’s oldest retail banks, today announced they are providing surcharge-free ATM access at 371 machines in Queensland and northern New South Wales, the center of flooding. Anyone who lives in the flooded areas will have surcharge-free ATM access whether or not they are a Bank of Queensland customer.

Customers ATM, which has its headquarters in Cheltenham, Victoria, operates more than 5,700 ATMs throughout Australia. The company also owns and operates 310 ATMs for Bank of Queensland. The bank owns on its own 61 ATMs.

On January 18, cardholders begin withdrawing funds surcharge-free from Bank of Queensland owned and bank-branded ATMs. The Brisbane-based financial institution will continue to offer the service until Feb. 12. The bank’s normal surcharge fee is A$2.00 per transaction (U.S. $1.97). Bank of Queensland is one of a number of Australian banks that have agreed to waive their ATM surcharge fees.

David Liddy, managing director of Bank of Queensland, which is also called BOQ, said dropping the surcharge fee is a way of helping people cope with the floods.

“We understand that a lot of people have been impacted by this disaster, and we want to make to make it as easy as possible for people to access their cash without having to worry about incurring a fee,” Liddy said.

Flooding caused by torrential rains has heavily damaged areas in central Brisbane, Queensland’s state capital, and the surrounding lands, which encompasses a geographic area as large as France and Germany combined. The floods have killed 25 people and caused thousands to be evacuated, destroyed crops and led to a drop in consumer confidence.

“BOQ agreed to waive the direct charge fee on its own fleet of ATMs, and we also worked out an arrangement with Customers ATM, where we will share the costs of waiving the direct charge fee on the 310 Customers-owned BOQ-branded ATMs in the impacted areas,” Liddy said.

Tim Wildash, Customers ATM managing director, said he welcomed the opportunity to work with BOQ to help meet the needs of the flood-affected communities.

Customers also is working to either replace or repair ATMs damaged by the floods, Wildash said.

"As the Qeensland flood recovery continues, we are still assessing sites and the effects of the flood on our terminals. We are expecting up to 50 of our ATMs to be affected," said Bridget Cull, Customers ATM communications manager. It is difficult to determine how much cash was deposited in the affected ATMs because in a majority of cases, merchants own the cash, Cull said.

In November 2009, Customers ATM and Nautilus Hyosung, a Seoul, South Korea, ATM manufacturer, signed a contract. The agreement gave Customers the rights to distribute a range of Nautilus Hyosung models, including the Monimax series. Customers ATM also deploys ATMs manufactured by Triton, which is based in Long Beach, Miss.

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