Customers Flee ATMs over Charges, Return to Banking Halls

The rising charges for transactions on Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) is sending customers back to banking halls opposing the original intention to decongest banking halls and encourage use of e-payment channels, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.

Investigations revealed that while intra-bank ATM withdrawal is at no cost, some banks still charge customers for this service, attributing it to maintenance fee.

There are also some charges in the flat rate of N100 per transaction on inter-bank ATM withdrawals pegged by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as some have risen to N210 for a single transaction.

Intra-bank withdrawal is when a customer withdraws money from the ATM of his/her bank, while inter-bank is when the customer withdraws money from the ATM of other banks.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek investigations revealed that though the bank notifies you of a N100 deduction from your account via SMS for use of another bank’s ATM, the N110 is not included in the notification sent to the bank customer.

Only vigilant customers with a good knowledge of their account balances can determine the actual amount deducted as ATM charges for inter-bank ATM withdrawals.

Most bank customers do not take time to check their account balances after withdrawals and do not actually know when they are exploited.