In March 2009, the financial services industry changed the way consumers were charged for using ATM’s throughout Australia.

Under the old regulations, a financial institution was able to set the fee that a consumer incurred for using a ATM. The service fee was normally waived if the consumer was a member of the bank or credit union who owned and operated the ATM. In the very common scenario where a consumer used an ATM was wasn’t directly owned by their bank or affiliated to it in some manner – the bank would normally charge a fee for those services. If you used an independent ATM, for instance one that wasn’t operated by one of the major banks or institutions – they were paid a commission of sorts by the clients bank for facilitating the transaction. The operators of the independent ATM networks decided that wasn’t all that fair and sort to have the legislation changed.

Since the beginning of March, the owner/operator of the ATM can now charge whatever fee they want when someone uses their ATM. As an example, if a Suncorp member uses a Suncorp or affiliated ATM – they are not charged any fees for the transaction. If they use an ATM that isn’t in an agreement with their bank – the ATM owner, say Commonwealth Bank of Australia now have the ability to charge the Suncorp user whatever fee they feel inclined.

When the legislation was first amended there was a significant amount of press covering the changes, as the consumer advocacy groups felt it was open to substantial abuse. The example most often cited, related to an ATM within a bar, nightclub or pub. During the day when the nightclub or pub is not under heavy patronage, the fee for a consumer would be moderate – maybe $2.00. However, once the alcohol started flowing and people were inebriated – the fee would suddenly jump to $10 to use the ATM. It is easy to see why the consumer watchdogs thought it was going to be abused, a drunk person just wants more money to keep on drinking and isn’t paying a lot of attention. They’d more than likely ignore the prompt and just keep pressing next until the ATM dispensed additional drinking money.

I personally find it frustrating that the banks look at the ATM as another avenue to make money from the public of Australia. Users already provide the bank their money, which they invest an make hundreds of millions of dollars annually and for that privilege – they are charged to withdraw their own money. On top of that, electronic funds transfer has become so common place nowadays, a lot of people don’t carry cash on them anymore. You can use a standard debit or credit card to purchase and ice cream and you won’t get looked at sideways in most cases and you’re not being charged for it.

Every ATM I’ve used since the legislation changed has been charging $2.00 to use the ATM, regardless of time of day. I’m sure that plenty of people have come across ATM’s that charge a lot more but I haven’t come across one charging less, until last week. If you’re out and about and have a need for an ATM, I’d recommend you use a rediATM if there is one around – they only charge $1.75. While it is only 25c difference, I think that rediATM should be applauded for not following the masses and blindly charging $2.00 for their service. I hope if enough people use their network of 3,100 ATM’s throughout Australia – they might keep their service fee below the magic $2.00 mark that every other financial service business wants to charge.

For the last couple of weeks while working through the 100 pushup challenge, I’ve been peaking in the final set at between 60-65 push ups. I was getting quite worried that I wasn’t going to be able to complete the personal fitness challenge, until I managed to do 73 in the final session in week six. That made me think that I should be able to get through the 100 pushups for the final strength test but wasn’t quite willing to bet the house on it.

As it turns out, it was lucky that I didn’t bet the house on it as I failed in my first attempt at the 100 pushup challenge and only manged to do 98! I was really close but I began to really struggle when I got to 85 and by 95 I could barely lift my weight. Not wanting to go down without a fight, I took a ten second break, literally, did another 20 pushups and collapsed after completing 118 in total.

Unfortunately however, while 10 seconds isn’t very long – I didn’t make it though the fitness test. I’m going to repeat week six and increase all of the numbers per set and see how I go next weekend. A little disappointing, I was really hoping to get through it but I’m not completely disappointed beacuse of the additional 20 I managed.

Next week I will succeed!

After starting the one hundred pushup challenge half way through July, I have now completed all of the required sessions which will theoretically allow me to do 100 push ups consecutively.

Session one was probably the hardest in week six, which you might find a little strange. It involved five sets, with a minimum set of 35 and not less than 55 in the fifth for a total of 220 push ups. The third set from week five I completed a total of 235 push ups over eight sets but doing the same number of five sets really pushed me and I was only able to meet the requirement.

Session two jumped from five sets upto nine sets but on lower repetitions per set. Workout number two required a minimum of 18 in any set, not less than 58 in the ninth set for a total of 246 pushups. As I mentioned perviously, the lower repetition count sets suit me far better and I managed to meet or exceed the requirement for a total of 268 pushups. Frustratingly, in a few fitness workouts I’ve managed to get between 60 and 65 in the final set but I haven’t managed to exceed it – which was beginning to sow seeds of doubt that I’d be able to make it the 100 pushups.

Session three was nine sets and was going to be a challenge, as it required a minimum of 274 total pushups in the workout – up approximately 30 from the previous session which is a big jump. The workout required a minimum of 22 in any set and not less than 60 in the ninth. To try and get past the magical 60-65 pushup barrier that I seemed to be stuck on, I trained per the requirements and managed 73 pushups in the ninth set – which I was very happy about.

Now I just need to get through the final 100 pushup strength test in the next day or two.