ING Bank Dropping 5 Free Overseas ATM Withdraw Benefit from 1/8/23

[levelnine]

Suggest everyone moves to the US to open a Schwab checking account which has unlimited ATM rebates (even in the US).

It is a terrific account. Better than anything on the Australian market.

 

[Ausbt]

I'm in Auckland right now and ING is the only bank delivering cash for me. CBA (my main bank) won't give me cash, Citi won't give me cash. No idea why, I informed them of my plans. Then there are the fees on Amex/Visa. Essentially one AUD$1 is converting to NZD$1.03 with Amex/Visa net of fees whereas ING is exchanging at 1.07. So for me, I'm not using anything else other than ING for now. Might need a local bank account soon. Interestingly I had to deposit money into a Kiwi bank a/c (not mine) the other day. ASB didn't even want to allow me to do that as "they didn't know who I was". Kiwi anti-money laundering laws are just so much more stringent than ours

 

[sqrt()]

I'm in Auckland right now and ING is the only bank delivering cash for me. CBA (my main bank) won't give me cash, Citi won't give me cash. No idea why, I informed them of my plans. Then there are the fees on Amex/Visa. Essentially one AUD$1 is converting to NZD$1.03 with Amex/Visa net of fees whereas ING is exchanging at 1.07. So for me, I'm not using anything else other than ING for now. Might need a local bank account soon. Interestingly I had to deposit money into a Kiwi bank a/c (not mine) the other day. ASB didn't even want to allow me to do that as "they didn't know who I was". Kiwi anti-money laundering laws are just so much more stringent than ours

IIRC my Citi debit card was locked when I was in Russia a few years ago (half-way through a trip I had notified them of - go figure), I managed to call them and the agent unblocked it immediately.

 

[Lynda2475]

AFAIAW you dont have to tell Citi-bank you are travelling overseas unlike the 4 big banks

 

[SYD]

AFAIAW you dont have to tell Citi-bank you are travelling overseas unlike the 4 big banks

I use the NAB app to tell them when/whee I’m travelling. It’s not essential but easy to do. Apart from ATMs in some countries (when there’s no ATM fee), I usually don’t use my NAB cards. But I did once have an ANZ CC locked after filling up petrol overseas. They were actually on the phone to me before I got back into the car!

 

[Lynda2475]

I always notify WBC/SGB/ANZ/NAB (whomever I'm holding a credit with) before O/S travel via their website (or app) but when I checked with Citibank re the Plus account they said not necessary and there isn't anywhere in their app to notify travel.

I've had a citi card go inactive for not using for 6 months but never for just using overseas.

They can tell from history it doesn't get used domestically.

 

[Pussels]

I wonder where the highest ATM owner fees are charged? Can anybody beat Chile, ATM fees are about $15 each time, ouch.

 

[N860CR]

I wonder where the highest ATM owner fees are charged? Can anybody beat Chile, ATM fees are about $15 each time, ouch.

Turkey was $22 a few weeks ago. Even Singapore was about $10. It’s really quite out of control

 

[SYD]

Turkey was $22 a few weeks ago. Even Singapore was about $10. It’s really quite out of control

I didn’t think SIN was that bad. I don’t recall what they were charging last year - ING just rebated…

I‘m in the US atm and going around different banks checking fees. They’re averaging US$3 to US$3.50 but we found a Santander ATM in CVS that wanted to charge US$6.95 and do dynamic conversion! No thanks.

 

[Kremmen]

I’ll still be keeping ING for the Savings Maximiser. Still best in class for interest earn and why I opened my account years ago - the foreign ATM rebate was icing on the cake.

Savings Maximiser used to be much better. The good bonus interest originally had no requirement to make >=5 card purchases per month, nor to have another account with them. Seems like the stardard MO for ING is to create a product with a good feature and then pull the rug out from under those who've been using it. They also make it impossible to change account type and keep account number the same, deliberately trapping customers in products that they no longer need.

 

[SYD]

Savings Maximiser used to be much better. The good bonus interest originally had no requirement to make >=5 card purchases per month, nor to have another account with them. Seems like the stardard MO for ING is to create a product with a good feature and then pull the rug out from under those who've been using it. They also make it impossible to change account type and keep account number the same, deliberately trapping customers in products that they no longer need.

Yeah, don’t disagree but the monthly hurdles are not onerous.

Not sure I understand the comment about changing accounts? Sounds like you might be the same as SYD+1 and opened just the Maximiser account linked to another bank account in the beginning? When I got around to getting one, it was the standard ING Everyday and Maximiser.

UBank is much the same. Transaction account and Savings account.

 

[exceladdict]

Looking like alternatives are
- Citibank given overseas atms
- Macquarie due to 4% interest on balance
- Bankwest accounts with platinum debit mc - some with no fees or hassle, others (Qantas) with some hoops

 

[Pete98765432]

UBank is much the same. Transaction account and Savings account.

True, but unlike ING, you can have direct debits (annd credits) against the savings account. I like this feature as I don’t have to shuffle money between accounts when credit card payments are due.

 

[half-hour]

Looking like alternatives are
- Citibank given overseas atms
- Macquarie due to 4% interest on balance
- Bankwest accounts with platinum debit mc - some with no fees or hassle, others (Qantas) with some hoops

Do these all refund overseas ATM charges?

 

[SYD]

Do these all refund overseas ATM charges?

No but Citi (and Westpac for specific products) have reciprocal arrangements.

True, but unlike ING, you can have direct debits (annd credits) against the savings account. I like this feature as I don’t have to shuffle money between accounts when credit card payments are due.

That’s actually new. The old UBank Save didn’t allow direct payments but they had an “sweep” function to draw down if you had DDs or scheduled payments that would otherwise overdraw your account. I agree the new UBank system is better - once I got used to it!

 

[coyote25]

Turkey was $22 a few weeks ago. Even Singapore was about $10. It’s really quite out of control

Wow

I’m in Turkey May and June using ING to access local currency so glad this change is after my trip.

 

[Pete98765432]

That’s actually new. The old UBank Save didn’t allow direct payments but they had an “sweep” function to draw down if you had DDs or scheduled payments that would otherwise overdraw your account. I agree the new UBank system is better - once I got used to it!

I was originally with 86400 which was taken over by NAB then merged with Ubank. It seems they kept the 86400 platform and moved existing Ubank customers to it.

 

[bcworld]

Wow

I’m in Turkey May and June using ING to access local currency so glad this change is after my trip.

I'm in Turkey in August!

 

[Kremmen]

Not sure I understand the comment about changing accounts? Sounds like you might be the same as SYD+1 and opened just the Maximiser account linked to another bank account in the beginning?

What I mean is that when a bank makes a major change to an account's conditions, the obvious thing to do is change the account to a product that is more useful to you. If you use a sensible bank, you can do this. e.g. If you want to change the type of savings account you have with Bendigo Bank, you can. Everything (online login, BSB, account number, balance) remains the same. (The one quirk with them is that a cheque account can't morph into a savings account or v.v.)

Yes, I started an original Maximiser linked to another bank account. ING changed the conditions to mean that I get no bonus interest, making the account useless. Then they started another product that would still give me decent interest, but they don't allow accounts to be changed, because their management and IT are rubbish. (I had dozens of investments, dividends, ATO, etc, all set to use the ING account, so the amount of work to change it was huge. Needless to say, I changed it all to not ING so that they couldn't screw me again in future.) There are supposed to be RBA rules that banks make account changes easy, but ING just ignores them.

 

[SYD]

I’ve gone down the WBC / Global Wallet route but while it’s clear they won’t charge an ATM fee if you use an alliance/partner ATM, it looks like they’ll still sting you 3% if you withdraw OS from your AUD balance or sting you upfront ~2.5% if you convert AUD to one of the supported foreign currencies….

I’ll experiment in a few weeks time but not looking good.

Are there any other options to avoid ATM and Int TX fees to access your own money?