Free ATM era ends on Tuesday

[iinfi]

Free ATM era ends on Tuesday

From Tuesday, banks will start charging customers Rs 18-20 every time they withdraw money from another bank's ATM, and such withdrawals will also face a limit of Rs 10,000.

Customers will be offered five free third-party withdrawals per month from savings accounts and will be charged from the sixth transaction onwards.

However, all banks are not offering the same facility of five free withdrawals per month to current account and no-frills account customers.

For instance, HSBC and HDFC Bank [ Get Quote ] will charge current account customers for all third-party withdrawals.

Customers have been enjoying the flexibility of withdrawing cash from any banks' ATM free-of-charge since April 1, 2009 since a Reserve Bank of India [ Get Quote ] directive to that effect came into force.

However, banks complained that the number of transactions had increased dramatically since April 1, 2009 while the ticket size of each withdrawal had reduced, resulting in increased interchange expenses for banks.

Every time a customer uses another bank's ATM, the customer's bank has to pay the acquiring bank an interchange fee of Rs 18-20.

From October 15, customers will have to bear the interchange fee after they exhaust their quota of five free savings account transactions per month.

However, Axis Bank, which has the third largest ATM network in the country, has chosen to break ranks and not charge its customers for third-party withdrawals. Sources said this is part of the bank's strategy to attract current account and savings account customers.

The bank was seeing positive interchange flows even when the free ATM rule was in place and is thus is in a position to offer this facility to its customers.

Banks are required to inform customers about the charges one month in advance and claim they have been doing so through quarterly statements and advertisements at ATMs and branches.

Instead of charging all customers uniformly for third-party ATM use, some banks are framing their charges depending on the profile of the customer.

For instance, HDFC Bank is allowing its salary account and premium customers an unlimited number of free third-party ATM withdrawals while offering five free withdrawals to savings account customers. HSBC is also waiving ATM charges for its Premier and PowerVantage customers.

"This is likely to be the trend in the industry and I expect most banks to follow suit. Remunerative accounts will not be charged whereas no-frills and zero-balance accounts will be," said a senior executive of a private sector bank.

this was on the cards ....

Confusing, who will remember no. of transactions?
Better they impose flat atm usage charges say Rs 5/- per use for their own and external bank cards

[mrbgupta]

Axis Bank is not going to implement it.HDFC doesn't implement it for salary account customers.RBI has made this optional and left it to the banks' sole decision whether they will implement it or not.

[harryneopotter]

thank god i have an AXIS bank account !!!

[josephcs]

Originally Posted by harryneopotter

thank god i have an AXIS bank account !!!

Escaped!

I usually prefer third-party bank's ATM as my IOB always shows an Out-of-order status!

[Krow]

I rarely need to use third party ATM's as I use SBI, which has a very wide reach.

[amol48]

Originally Posted by Krow

I rarely need to use third party ATM's as I use SBI, which has a very wide reach.

Wide reach and LONG queues?

Honestly I feel happy now . At least now the Axis Bank ATM below my building will be free of queues like before

[x3060]

am using SBT... dont really mind waiting for 30 min though , life aint that lightning fast for me

[Anorion]

Anyone else face problems when withdrawing from ICICI or SBI ATMs while using an HDFC card? Keeps happening to me... donno if I am the only one who is jinxed.

[Krow]

^Maybe, SBI doesn't like you.

[ssk_the_gr8]

dude... there should have been some standard set of rules... this is confusing...
and u have to remember when your 5 withdrawals finish

[navjotjsingh]

Well my own bank's ATM is only a small distance away and Canara's ATM is even nearer but after a small blunder (1 failed transaction with successful debit), I have started visiting my own bank's ATM (always empty and working )

[gxsaurav]

If I need money immediately, then instead of looking for a compatible ATM, I would rather prefer to pay Rs 20 & take out money from any ATM

[confused!!]

Its good that I have a HDFC salary account

[Stuge]

how about ICICI bank + corporation bank ?

[amol48]

Originally Posted by gxsaurav

If I need money immediately, then instead of looking for a compatible ATM, I would rather prefer to pay Rs 20 & take out money from any ATM

It's fine if it's emergency. But why search for our compatible ATM first EVERYTIME we withdraw money! Isn't it better if we could just withdraw from anywhere 'n' number of times. I pay Rs.300 bucks annually to Axis Bank for this which I *really* don't mind. Who the hell will remember the number of transactions done in a month.

ICICI, HDFC and most other banks have already been providing free withdrawal facility if you maintain a quarterly balance of above Rs.10k.

[mrbgupta]

Originally Posted by amol48

ICICI, HDFC and most other banks have already been providing free withdrawal facility if you maintain a quarterly balance of above Rs.10k.

If I am not wrong 10K is the amount (AQB)both ICICI and HDFC needs to maintain your normal savings account in urban areas.

[amol48]

Originally Posted by mrbgupta

If I am not wrong 10K is the amount (AQB)both ICICI and HDFC needs to maintain your normal savings account in urban areas.

Yup that's right. Or you can say deposit 9lac in your account for one day and you can keep the balance Rs.0 for the rest 89 days