Australian Bank with the most branches? (loans, home, live)

[ColdCanadian]

Was looking on wikipedia and they think Westpac has the most branches.
It would be nice to have an account with a bank that even in small towns/villages is most common.

ANZ seems to have very low number of branches for a major bank.
Closest branches to Kununnurra for example are Broome or Darwin; 7+ hr drive?

I guess I'm spoiled where I live because any bank has a branch within 5-10 km of my house.
It's not something I normally think about, but it gets annoying when I'm out of town for work.

Is it convenient using another bank's ATMs to deposit or withdraw cash if you are beyond the black stump?
I would assume that it's another annoyance, but I could be wrong.

[Vichel]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Was looking on wikipedia and they think Westpac has the most branches.
It would be nice to have an account with a bank that even in small towns/villages is most common.

ANZ seems to have very low number of branches for a major bank.
Closest branches to Kununnurra for example are Broome or Darwin; 7+ hr drive?

I guess I'm spoiled where I live because any bank has a branch within 5-10 km of my house.
It's not something I normally think about, but it gets annoying when I'm out of town for work.

Is it convenient using another bank's ATMs to deposit or withdraw cash if you are beyond the black stump?
I would assume that it's another annoyance, but I could be wrong.

If the town has an Australia Post Office, you can do your personal banking there if your bank is one of several participating banks. Commonwealth Bank, for instance. Google "Australia Post Banking" or something like that to see which banks. You can pay your bills at AusPost, deposit cheques or cash, withdrawals, etc.

I use a teller maybe three times a year, doing the bulk of my banking online, so having access to the Net would likely be a bigger priority for you imo. Banks may charge a fee for using someone else's ATM, around $2. Commonwealth owns BankWest so there is no charge for using the other guy's ATM if you're with either of them. Use a debit card instead of cash as our eftpos system is very extensive here. You can pay for something with your debit card and in a lot of shops get some cash out at the same time.

[Trimac20]

The Gum Tree Bank? lol

[Derek40]

CBA would be the highest, as well as Post Offices, they even appear in Newsagents etc in smaller country towns.
Westpac and the NAB would be a distant 2nd and 3rd.
St George seem to have a lot of ATM's in NSW, but low number of branches.
FWIW I left the CBA years ago in favour of a local building society - Newcastle Permanent - even if they are virtually non-existant heading south, after the Central Coast towards Sydney.
They have a strong presence in northern NSW however -branches up to Armidale and Lismore, and would be the largest building society in Oz, with the best home loans.