Behind the no-armed bandits

Jim Hart writes: Re. “ATMs: what those no-armed bandits do with your $2 fee” (yesterday). It is a tad disingenuous of banks to say they don’t make any profit on ATM fees. The only reason it costs NAB $2 to give me money out of my CBA account is  because all the banks have agreed on that figure. On the other hand banks don’t charge for an internet transfer of funds to an account at another bank. An ATM is just another computer terminal, and both transactions require the same negligible amount of computer time.

The bottom line is they do it because they can, just like those other cartels — airlines and theatre booking agencies.

Patrick Gallagher writes: Note that UK banks, which are in no way behind than their Australian cousins when it comes to gouging the public, have been banned from charging withdrawal fees at “foreign” ATMs.

Wake Up to ratings reality

Dave Lennon writes: Re. “Ten breakfast EP on indefinite leave.” (yesterday). Reading Glenn Dyer’s contribution  to the piece about Wake Up‘s ratings made me wonder. I don’t suppose anyone has the ratings for the early days of the current version of Sunrise to offer a better perspective on how Wake Up really is going? Lest we forget there was Sunrise MK1, which was axed and Seven left breakfast TV for about 18 months (from memory) before they reluctantly decided to have another crack.

I’ve watched I guess about five minutes of Wake Up, but it provided me with the quote of the week.

While discussing at what point in their children’s development parents might revisit any tendency to wander around the house naked, Tash, not Tarsh, related a recent George Costanza moment in which she had seen her brother naked, which prompted the line “and thank god he has been blessed”.