All the scheduled commercial banks, lending entities and other debit card issuing microfinance companies have a prescribed limit of free withdrawals using ATM-cum-debit cards.
New Delhi: All the scheduled commercial banks, lending entities and other debit card issuing microfinance companies have a prescribed limit of free withdrawals for ATM-cum-debit cards. According to a directive by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all the banks are mandated to offer a minimum number of free transactions at ATMs to its savings bank account holders with effect from November 01, 2014.
There are some selected locations and places where a fee is levied on cash withdrawals such as ATM kiosks at international airports, railway stations and foreign countries. The withdrawals in such locations are chargeable due to a large number of people accessing the ATMs, 24-hour operability and currency conversion fees at ATMs located in foreign countries.
All banks are directed to offer a minimum of five free transactions (including both financial and non-financial) in a month, irrespective of the location of ATMs. In case ATMs are located in six metro locations including Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, banks must offer a minimum of three free transactions (including both financial and non-financial transactions) in a month their savings bank account holders.
However, banks can offer more than five free of cost ATM transactions to their customers solely on their respective decision. The prescription of the number of free ATM transactions is always inclusive of both financial and non-financial transactions. A minimal charge of Rs 20 is levied per ATM transaction if a person exceeds the number of free ATM transactions in a particular month.
While, on the other hand, the cash withdrawal charges via credit cards from ATMs and service charges related to the same are decided by the credit card issuing bank itself. The fees levied on the cash withdrawal by using credit cards from ATMs and cash withdrawals by credit cards from an ATM located abroad might vary.
