Paige Doughty was charged a large fee for using an ATM at a local pub, instead of going to her own bank. Source: News Limited

They’re the smallish, niggling charges we have to deal with every day — without being able to avoid them — and they’re starting to take a big chunk out of our incomes and making big additions to the cost of living.

But there are so many and they are so varied nobody is keeping check on them.

But today’s demand for a Senate inquiry into ATM fees by Labor and the Greens has sparked a revolt against these sneaky extra imposts.

Related: Bank fees under microscope

For example, in Sydney to get to the city you might have to pay increased petrol excise to fill up your car, pay a toll to drive it on a main road, then you might have to pay a fee to use the automated teller machine of a bank which is not yours.

Suddenly $15 has been chewed up and you have yet to pay for any actual goods.

Twitter user Bjorn put it this way: “It is the constant drip, drip, drip of money out of my pocket that grates ‘just a service fee’ #givemestrength.”

And: “…now I am charged a fee to pay a bill online or at a post office by card — it costs me to PAY either way.”

Grandmother Teresa Lewis was left very disappointed after being charged for 'cakeage' for bringing her own birthday cake to a Burleigh Heads restaurant. Source: News Limited

We all know nothing is free and we have been told we can make choices when it comes to using our money. But we also have the feeling these extra charges are commercial ambushes to get us when we have few alternatives. The object is not to recover costs but to gouge customers.

Like the restaurant which demands $4 for a fresh glass when a diner switches from white to red, or the eatery which charges “cakeage” to cut up a birthday treat.

Private enterprises aren’t alone in wrenching money out of us to make sure they don’t lose dollars and we do, even when they make ludicrous demands.

Take the power company which charged a consumer $36.30 for being unable to enter her residence for an inspection — even though she had warned them she would not be at home that day.

They told our reader: “Your electricity is on but we couldn’t get to the meter at [edited out] St, Adelaide, … The reading’s rebooked for [0]/[0]/15 (fee $36.30).”

The homeowner told news.com.au: “I told them I wasn’t going to be there, they said they could get in.

They rebooked without checking if I’d be around

“When I tried to set up new time when I was there, they said it could be any time from 8am until one minute to midnight and if I popped out for 10 minutes and they happened to turn up, rebooking fee again.”

There are many more occasions in which the consumer is taken for granted because they have no other choice.

Use a credit card and you could be charged extra … for using a credit card. And that’s before 19 per cent interest rates on your account.

There are many times when using your credit card will cost you — even when you have little choice.

Blue Mountains resident Brian Edwards was frustrated when he was slugged a credit card fee for booking online. Source: News Limited

Airline booking fees

Gone are the days when you could rock up to your local travel agent, book a ticket and pay for it in cash instalments. Most people these days book online, and by far the easiest way to pay is by credit card. So naturally, the airlines are charging not for one transaction, but a fee per person each way. For example, a couple travelling internationally on Qantas will be slugged $60 in credit card transaction fees — broken down per traveller, even though the fares were paid for as one transaction. A Qantas spokeswoman said their “surcharges reflect the significant costs of enabling customers to pay by credit card. Merchants like Qantas are entitled under Australia’s payments system to recover these costs, as the RBA reaffirmed when it reviewed the system less than three years ago.” She added: “We don’t profit from credit card surcharges and we offer low-fee and no-fee payment options for customers who prefer not to pay with a credit card.”

Ticket booking fees

Not only are you paying sometimes hundreds of dollars to see your favourite performers, but you’re charged for the privilege of printing out your own ticket on your own printer with your own ink. If you are wondering how they get away with it, both of the big ticketing agencies in Australia use this fee as their main revenue source, as they see very little, if any from the actual ticket price itself.

Movies

Yes, you can line up and pay cash over the counter. But if you want to get into the session of your choice for a new film, you’ll have to book ahead. And to do that you’ll need to pay a booking fee on your credit card — they’ll charge per ticket, even if you are booking a group of people together.

Depending on which state they’re in, customers using taxis are slugged up to 10% of their fee if they don’t have enough cash for the fare. Picture: Jason Edwards Source: News Corp Australia

Taxis

Again, it can be argued you can avoid this by bringing enough cash for your fare. But when you’re stuck and need to pay with a card (either credit or debit), you’ll be slugged an extra 5-10%, depending on the state you’re in.

Restaurants / Cafes / Small stores

Many restaurants and cafes charge an extra fee for paying with your credit card — sometimes a set amount, sometimes a percentage of the total bill. Usually this cost far exceeds the cost to the business itself, leaving some small businesses collecting a tidy profit from their customers.

While many people argue you should be paying cash where possible, those relying on ATMs will often be charged for withdrawing their own money.

This is especially difficult for people living outside of metropolitan areas, where consumers have little choice in the ATMs they use, meaning they are slugged for withdrawing cash from a ‘foreign’ machine.

A news.com.au reader hit back at critics who called people lazy for not using their own bank’s ATM.

“People in the rural areas are NOT lazy!!! Our nearest bank can be over 100k away. Yes, we choose to live here, do you choose to eat the crops we grow???? I’m all for making profits, but some of these fees are a complete rip off.

“As for using credit cards verses cash, a friend is a timber cutter and sometimes does not get paid for months at a time so has to occasionally use a credit card. He works hard too. A lower % would help him enormously. He is past retirement age but loves to work, no government handouts. Should he be so ripped off?”

He is not alone is having a gutful of surreptitious charges emptying his wallet.