ATM service charges increase, to cost Rs 21 per transaction from Saturday

ATMs across banks are all set to increase service charges per transaction from Saturday, following an order from RBI and customers will have to Rs 1 more beyond permissible free transactions

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across banks are all set to increase service charges per transaction from Saturday, following an order from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and customers will have to Rs 1 more beyond the permissible free transactions for cash as well as non-cash purposes.

As per the RBI notification dated June 10, 2021, from January 1, 2022, banks have been permitted to charge Rs 21, instead of Rs 20 with applicable taxes, if any, shall be additionally payable.

However, the customers are eligible for five free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) every month from their own bank ATMs.

They are also eligible for free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) from other bank ATMs viz. three transactions in metro centers and five transactions in non-metro centers.

The last change in interchange fee structure for ATM transactions was in August 2012, while the charges payable by customers were last revised in August 2014.

The RBI has notified the changes from January 1, 2022, citing the increasing cost of ATM deployment and expenses towards ATM maintenance incurred by banks or white-label ATM operators.

Ashwani Rana, Founder of, Voice of Banking said, "The increase of service charges per ATM transaction will be charged from the customers beyond a number of transactions permitted by the respective banks. This increase is only Rs 1 plus Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is very nominal to customers against the maintenance charges paid by banks as earlier they were charging Rs 20."

Nipun Jain, Chief Executive Officer, RapiPay Fintech clarified, "Consumers withdrawing cash using our Micro ATMs and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) will not be affected with the recent RBI guideline to increase ATM transactions charges (applicable after the customers exhaust the free monthly limit)."

"We believe this will boost the already growing demand for cash withdrawal through AEPS and Micro ATMs at our direct business outlets and help us in achieving our goal of growing financial inclusion in deeper geographies and far-flung areas like North East, Kashmir, Ladakh, and Uttrakhand. We have sold over one lakh Micro ATMs since we began operations last year. Our average ticket size of withdrawal has climbed from Rs 3500 to Rs 3800, with a CAGR growth of 25 per cent in Micro ATMs in the last one year," Jain added.