ATM transactions: Interchange fee, charge after free withdrawals hiked

After almost nine years, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday announced a hike in the interchange fee structure for ATM transactions, allowing an increase in 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. The new charges will be effective from August 1.

The central bank also said customers are eligible for five free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) every month from their own bank ATMs. They are also eligible for free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) from other bank ATMs, viz. three transactions in metro centres and five transactions in non-metro centres. Beyond the free transactions, the ceiling or cap on customer charges is Rs 20 per transaction. To compensate the banks for the higher interchange fee and given the general escalation in costs, they are allowed to increase the customer charges to Rs 21 per transaction. This will be effective from January 1, 2022.

As per the RBI, the last change in interchange fee structure for ATM transactions was in August 2012, while charges payable by customers were last revised in August 2014.