Customers Lament As Banks Introduce New Charges

CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi

Although the Central Bank of Nigeria has abolished some charges to lessen their burden,  bank customers have, however, cried out against fresh charges introduced by Deposit Money Banks.

The customers, who had envisaged low cost of running accounts following the various cost-cutting measures carried out by the banks and the reforms initiated by the CBN, have complained about fresh and arbitrary charges.

Although only few banks have announced publicly their plans to introduce new charges, investigation by our correspondent revealed that some banks had introduced the charges secretly.

For instance, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Keystone Bank Limited recently introduced monthly maintenance fee on Automated Teller Machine cards, a move customers said was an indirect replacement of the scrapped N100 charge on ATM withdrawals from bank other than the account holder’s.

Some banks now also charge as high as N50 for SMS to alert their customers of transactions on their accounts, far above the usual N4 that all GSM providers charge for text messages.

Other arbitrary charges include N500 monthly maintenance fee for every current account, depending on the bank; N5 inter-state commission on every N1,000 transferred into or withdrawn from savings accounts in a state different from where the savings account is opened or domiciled.

In some banks, customers forfeit their monthly interest when they withdraw more than three times in a month from a particular account.

One of the customers, who identified himself simply as Tunde, complained to our correspondent that his bank was deducting all sorts of money from his account without notice.

He said, “Guaranty Trust Bank deducted N1,000 from my account for ATM card renewal. I never had a card and they deducted the money even without me applying for a card. Are they not supposed to provide an ATM card for me on request?”

A businessman, Mr. Chike Korie, said, “The deductions I get on SMS alert in a month sometimes run into thousands of naira. I’m a businessman and I get alerts on my account on a daily basis. They charge me N50, which I consider too much because the banks use bulk SMS, which should be cheaper.”

A salary earner, who simply introduced himself as Oni, said some of the bank charges contradicted the cash-less policy of the CBN.

On the introduction of maintenance charges on ATM cards, the Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr. Ugo Okoroafor, said the interplay of market forces was still in place in the market.

“What the banks agreed on was the removal of N100 charge on third-party transactions. So, if First Bank decides to charge its customers N100, the bank will have its reason for that. It is now between the bank and the customers,” he said.

March 13, 2013