The use of ATMs has Become Costlier than the free Transactions Allowed for cash as well as non-cash purposes from January 1.

Using ATMs beyond the allowed free transactions for cash as well as non-cash purposes will cost more from Saturday. As per the Reserve Bank‘s directive issued in June, banking customers will be required to pay Rs 21 per transaction with effect from January 1, 2022, for transactions in excess of the free permissible limit. Currently, banks are allowed to charge Rs 20 for such transactions through ATMs.

However, customers will continue to be eligible for five free transactions (including financial and non-financial transactions) every month from their own bank ATMs. They will also be eligible for three free transactions from other bank’s ATMs in metro centers and five at non-metro centres.

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The RBI had earlier allowed banks to increase interchange fee per transaction from Rs 15 to Rs 17 for financial transactions and from Rs 5 to Rs 6 for non-financial transactions in all centres with effect from August 1, 2021.

The charges have been increased to meet the increasing cost of ATM deployment and expenses towards ATM maintenance incurred by banks/white label ATM operators, as also considering the need to balance expectations of stakeholder entities and customer convenience.