You have to plan a little extra when you go to an ATM to withdraw cash from 2022. The reason? The Reserve Bank of India is (yet again) hiking the charges for ATM withdrawals for every public and private bank. Here is everything that you must know about it.
How many times can you withdraw money from an ATM in India for free?
The limit remains the same. You can do monetary and non-monetary transactions five times a month from your own bank ATMs and three times, from ATMs of other banks. In non-metro cities, five transactions are possible from other bank ATMs.
What if you exceed the limit?
Currently, for each transaction after exceeding the permitted free ones, a customer is charged Rs 20 per transaction. This will be hiked to Rs 21, said the RBI in a statement.
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And why are the charges hiked all of a sudden?
According to the RBI statement, the move is to compensate the banks for the higher interchange fee and given the general escalation in costs. Previously these charges were hiked in 2012 and these were reflected in August 2014.
Have people started getting notifications about it?
Yes. A few banks including HDFC and Axis Bank have already started sending out messages. According to the HDFC Bank website, the ATM transaction charge rate beyond the free limit of Rs 20 + taxes will be changed to Rs 21 + taxes as of January 1, 2022. While the Axis Bank website says, “Effective January 1, 2022, the financial transaction fee above the free limit in Axis Bank or other bank ATMs will be Rs 21 + GST.”
