Customers Unaware of Banker’s Guide, Pay hidden Charges

Bank customers who are unaware or choose to subjectively ignore the banker’s guide which stipulates that any charge outside the guide is against the law pay some “hidden” charges, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
Bank charges come in many forms and can be very confusing. Especially if customers are unsure of how they are incurring them.
The banker’s guide stipulates that any charge which is outside what is listed in the guide is illegal, unless the bank can come up with a proof that it is backed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to charge otherwise.
Banks under the guise of account maintenance charge, routinely deduct tokens from the customer’s account. Other “hidden” charges also come in the form of unsolicited SMS alert messages on transactions which alerts the customer on the current state of his/her account.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that some banks also charge interest on roll over of fixed deposit, commission on turnover (COT), savings account, current account, credit facility, bank draft fee, returned cheque fee, credit facility processing and renewal fee and others.
Apart from reading the bankers’ guide, it is also possible to avoid some bank charges like overdraft by simple money management.
Customers must be very careful to make sure they aware of their balances at all times and put off non-essential purchases until they can afford them.