Bank customers have resented as per the Reserve Bank’s (RBI’s) new rule which states that more than five transactions a month at an ATM to withdraw money or for other purposes like balance enquiry beyond five times in a month will attract a levy of Rs 20 per transaction from Saturday. Since this applies to home bank ATMs and covers all transactions, including change of pin or requesting a mini statement, residents say this will be extremely inconvenient.
Reserve Bank’s new guidelines that comes into force from Saturday, bank customers in six metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore — are allowed to withdraw money and/or carry out non-financial transactions like mini-statements at ATMs of banks, where they hold saving/current accounts, free of charge only five times a month.
Every transaction beyond this threshold will be charged Rs. 20 per use.
The number of free transactions at ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) of non-home banks has also been cut to three times a month from five times, according to the RBI’s latest guidelines.
“Taking into account the high density of ATMs, bank branches and alternate modes of payment available to customers, the number of mandatory free ATM transactions for savings bank account customers at other banks’ ATMs is reduced from the present 5 to 3 transactions per month (inclusive of both financial and non-financial transactions),” RBI had said in a notification issued in August this year.
Leading banks, including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, are continuing to offer free withdrawals from ATMs and five withdrawals at non-home bank ATMs even after the circular allowing them to restrict transactions comes into effect.while Kotak Bank continues to offer free withdrawals in ATMs across the country for customers maintaining a balance of over Rs 10,000. Yes Bank too offers unlimited access to all ATMs to most of its customers.
Last month, the RBI had said that effective November 1, banks can start charging account holders in six metros — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore — for transactions more than five times a month at their ATMs.
The Reserve Bank of India:
“Reserve Bank should withdraw the new regulations on ATM transactions as announced and provide all services for its customers without any additional charge,” .
The RBI also clarified that nothing precludes a bank from offering more than three free transactions at other bank ATMs to its account holders if it so desires. Effective November 1st, SBI has limited branch withdrawals to four a month for those maintaining balances of up to Rs 25,000. For customers maintaining an average monthly balance of Rs 25,000 and above, the bank allows unlimited usage of its own ATM network, but will limit access to third-party ATMs to three transactions a month.
The cap in the number of free ATM transactions will not apply on small/no-frills or basic savings bank deposit account holders who will continue to enjoy five free transactions.
At places other than the six metro centres, the facility of five free transactions for savings bank account customers will remain unchanged upon using other bank ATMs.
The bank will also increase the number of free transactions on its home network from five to nine if the customer does not visit a branch during the month.
India has a total of 1.6 lakh bank ATMs across the country as of March 2014.