Westpac has ended its cardless cash withdrawals, with Australian customers required to use their physical bank card to withdraw money from an ATM.
The cardless cash withdrawal feature at Westpac ATMs will no longer be available from 8pm (AEDT) on Friday.
“As part of the ongoing review of our products and services, Westpac will no longer offer cardless cash withdrawal functionality,” Westpac announced.
Westpac made the announcement on its website stating the change was part of an ongoing review of the bank’s “products and services”.
Customers will still be able to make cash withdrawals at Westpac ATMs across Australia as long as they use their physical card.
Cash transactions can also be made at all Westpac branches nationwide.
Westpac confirmed that cardless cash deposits would still be available to customers.
Australians were furious at the change, with many claiming canceling cardless cash withdrawals “seemed like a step backwards”.
Westpac has announced it will close its cardless cash withdrawal service
‘Like many people, I no longer carry a physical card with me, so cardless cash is really my only option if I need cash unexpectedly. Seems like a step backwards,” one person wrote.
‘It sounds like a step towards completely eliminating ATMs. “They don’t want to be in the cash business,” a second person commented.
‘Devastated by this too. It seems incredibly sudden and unexpected. “I can’t imagine it was a huge burden to maintain,” a third person chimed in.
A fourth added: “Wait, you need to use a physical card now?” I haven’t even had a wallet for five years.
Others suggested the service was being exploited by scammers and was shut down to mitigate fraud.
Westpac customers will need to use their debit card to withdraw cash from an ATM
An Australian, who claimed to work at Westpac, explained that the service was removed due to an “incredibly high” number of incidents of fraud and scams.
‘I work for Westpac at branch level and the reason we removed them is because the number of fraud and scam incidents occurring in this capacity was incredibly high. Like 1,000 in the last month,’ they stated.
‘Furthermore, there are actually only around 4,000 cardless cash withdrawals per week nationwide, which is a drop in the bucket for in-branch transactions overall.
“It’s too complicated to manage at branch level with fraud and scams and too many people exploiting other people’s internet banking to get the SMS code to withdraw money.”
Westpac explained that customers can make cash withdrawals using their debit card in branches, at Australia Post, at ATMs and in stores that accept cash withdrawals.