Multiple charges: Banks’ ingenous way to fleece customers

BY ODUNEWU SEGUN

IN an apparent bid to shore up dwindling capital base under, most Deposit Money Banks have not only continued to introduce all sorts of unapproved charges under different names, they now also hide under the CBN-approved charges to indiscriminately fleece their largely unsuspecting customers.

For instance, FirstBank is said to operate a monthly service fee of N100 on every customer’s account aside many other charges. With a customer base of 10 million, it would have amassed N24 billion from that alone in the last two years.

Similarly, GTBank is said to have a compulsory deduction of N100 levy per month on customers account, with a customer base of 4.4 million depositors, it makes N10.56 billion from that alone in 24 months. It is the same story with all the banks, making billions of naira yearly from customer’s accounts through spurious charges.

Some of the charges, National Daily gathered are just too many to be true. They include account maintenance charge, alert charge, interbank transfer charge, charge for using ATM card in another bank, VAT on all charges, COT charge. Other are administrative charge for loan, handling charge, monthly ledger fees, among many others.

The charges are just too many to be true: account maintenance charge, alert charge, interbank transfer charge, charge for using ATM card in another bank, VAT on all charges, COT charge, administrative charge for loan, handling charge, etc.

The revised Guide to Bank charges by the Central Bank of Nigeria cancelled the N100 monthly ATM card maintenance fee, pegging the fee at N100 annually. Also, it pegged the mandatory cost of SMS alert at N4 per subject. But majority of the banks have been flouting this directive.

Investigation by National Daily shows that many customers are charged more than the N4 by their banks for SMS while some even send SMS twice to notify customers of a single operation or transaction.

Some of the customers of the banks have complained bitterly about the illegal charges, especially on electronic transfers. The CBN guide stipulates a N70 charge on transactions below N500, 000; N100 charge on transactions between N500, 000 and N1 million and a charge of N500 for transactions above N1 million.

But National Daily gathered that most of the banks flout this directive. For instance, any out-bound electronic transfer done from a GTB account, for an amount as low as N1, 000, costs not less than N105.

A customer with Access Bank also told National Daily he received an alert of N100 deduction for stamp duty from his bank for a transaction. “But the CBN approved a deduction of just N50 for stamp duty per transaction by banks,” he explained.

Yemi Osibodu who operates a current account with FirstBank stated that the unending attitude of the banks to the deductions had been as a result of subscribers’ indifference. “The banks are fraudulent. They are milking customers of hard earned money, using all sorts of gimmicks and excuses. A lot of people are not complaining because the amount involved seems small. But then it accumulates.”

The CBN had on several occasions intervened on infractions between the banks and their numerous customers by introducing reform mechanisms to sanitise and stabilise the system. One of them is the Consumer Protection Department, established in 2012.

According to CBN’s Deputy Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor, the Consumer Protection Department has resolved over 6,000 complaints by bank customers, refunding N26.998 billion to customers whose accounts were illegally charged by their respective financial institutions as at April 2016.