ATM Withdrawal

ATM growth remains flat despite rising branch expansion as digital payment preferences and high ATM maintenance costs reshape banking strategy

New charges apply after free monthly transaction limits, says lender

Additionally, the RBI has said the ATM interchange fee will now be decided by the ATM network

The Reserve Bank on Friday permitted banks to increase charges on ATM cash withdrawals beyond the free monthly usage by Rs 2 to Rs 23 per transaction from May 1. Customers are eligible for five free transactions (inclusive of financial and non- financial transactions) every month from their own bank Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). They are also eligible for free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) from other bank ATMs -- three transactions in metro centres and five in non-metro centres. "Beyond the free transactions, a customer may be charged a maximum fee of Rs 23 per transaction. This shall be effective from May 1, 2025," the RBI said in a circular. Currently, banks are allowed to charge Rs 21 per transaction, after a customer exhausts the free transaction limit. The RBI further said the instructions shall also apply, mutatis mutandis, to transactions done at cash recycler machines (other than for cash deposit transactions).

The revision in fees follows requests from white-label ATM operators, who sought higher withdrawal charges due to increasing operational costs affecting their business

Subscribers of the retirement fund body EPFO may soon be able to withdraw claim amounts from their accounts through ATMs, a top official said. Union Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra has reportedly said that the labour ministry is upgrading information technology infrastructure to provide enhanced services to the Indian workforce. She further said that claimants, beneficiaries or insured individuals will be able to access their claim amounts through ATMs. According to the report, the withdrawal will be capped at 50 per cent of the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF). A maximum of Rs 7 lakh is provided under the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme run by the EPFO to the heirs of deceased subscribers. Thus, the heir of the deceased EPFO subscriber may also be able to use ATMs to withdraw the settled claim. A query e-mail sent to the labour ministry did not elicit any response.

Faced with a jump in costs and transaction failures, bank agents are demanding an upward revision of per-transaction charges to 1 per cent or Rs 21, whichever is lower

The Confederation of ATM Industry has approached the RBI to hike the ATM interchange fees by Rs 2

To drive card payments and reduce dependence on cash, the government had abolished merchant service fees on transactions with state-owned RuPay cards from January 2020.

The cash in circulation in the Indian economy has more than doubled since demonetisation

In a Q&A, the country managing director of the world's largest ATM maker, says he sees a lot of banks come to firms such as his to run their ATM network for them in the future

In a bid to protect the customers against ATM frauds, a withdrawal of or more than Rs 10,000 from the SBI account will now be possible only on entering the OTP in the ATM

Beware of keypad manipulation and heat mapping while using the ATM or PoS machine

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Banks, or the government, did not notify an extension of the ATM related rules, which meant that banks can now charge their customers like before

The public sector lender collected Rs 152.88 crore from customers by levying annual maintenance charges (AMC) on debit cards

The demand for a hike in the interchange hides a bigger mess, reports Raghu Mohan

Know your rights, follow good practices and use simple strategies to reduce charges

According to the new rules, SBI will allow 8-10 free ATM transactions a month for customers with average monthly balances of up to Rs 25,000 in their savings accounts

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao on Thursday said the ATM facility provided by banks have lot of overhead costs