Customers now to pay N50 monthly as ATM card maintenance fee

• foreign currency debit, credit card attracts $20

By Odunewu Segun

In the new Central Bank of Nigeria revised guide to bank charges which took effect from this month, May, customers are now to pay N50 monthly as card maintenance fee on naira debit and credit cards as against the former N100, National Daily findings has revealed.

Also, foreign currency denominated debit and credit cards would be charged $20 or its equivalent on an annual basis.

Charges for new hardware token and for replacement was increased from N2500 to N3,500, while one time soft token is to attract a SMS charge of N4 compared to N20 that was being charged by some banks.

It however left the rate for acquiring new debit and credit card, renewal or replacement of the cards at a one off charge of N1,000, while not-on-us, which is withdrawal from other banks Automated Teller Machines (ATM), would attract a charge of N65 after the third withdrawal within a month.

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The new charges however favour electronic transfers as the charges for online transfers between two banks were cut from N100 to N50. Before now, interbank transfers either through the mobile banking application or internet banking attracts a N100 charge and N5 Value Added Tax. This has however been cut down. The amount to be paid for printing of account statement was also cut down from N50 per page to a maximum of N20 per page.

The CBN recently suspended the nationwide implementation of the cash less policy which was to take effect from April 1, 2017. The apex bank also directed banks to revert to the old charges and refund customers who had been debited.

According to the cashless policy banks were directed banks to charge five per cent and 10 per cent on deposits and withdrawals above N40 million in the corporate category. The bank had fixed 1.5 per cent and two per cent for deposits ranging from N500, 000 and N1 million in the individual category.

But in the circular signed by the director, banking and payments system department, CBN, Dipo Fatokun, the existing policy before the announcement of the new policy shall remain in place in Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Abia, Anambra, Rivers and Abuja.

The CBN suspended the policy until further notice urging the banks to “revert to the status quo ante. The old charges to be reverted to three percent processing fee for withdrawals above N500,000 in the individual category and five percent for withdrawals above N3 million.