From November 1, SBI to link free ATM usage to balance, branch visits

THIS may not go well with tens of thousands of small savings bank holders with India's largest public sector bank with SBI saying that it will limit the number of branch withdrawals to four a month for those maintaining balances of up to Rs 25,000.

The bank has reviewed its ATM usage charges, allowing more free...

transactions to those who avoid visiting its branches, and unlimited transactions for those with large balances.

The latest directive on ATM charges will be applicable from November 1 and the bank says it will limit the number of branch withdrawals to four a month for those maintaining balances of up to Rs 25,000.

If you are maintaining an average monthly balance of Rs 25,000 and above, your bank will provide unlimited usage of its own ATM network, but will limit access to third-party ATMs to three transactions a month.

SBI will also increase the number of free transactions on its home network from five to nine if the customer does not visit a branch during the month.

If you maintain average balances of over Rs 1 lakh, SBI will provide unlimited access to all ATMs across the country. But if your balance is less than Rs 25,000, you will face the limit of five transactions on their home bank ATMs and three transactions on other banks' machines.

Those who exceed the limit will pay Rs 5 per transaction at SBI's ATMs and Rs 20 at machines belonging to other banks.

The new charge structure comes close on the heels of RBI directive allowing banks to reduce the number of free ATM transactions on their own networks and other bank's networks to five and three respectively.

The limits are applicable only in six major cities — Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Elsewhere, the earlier limit of five free transactions will continue.

India's largest public sector lender has 12.59 crore cardholders which account for 31 percent of the 40.9 crore debit cards in the country.

Its 44,929 ATMs form 27 percent of the 1.66 lakh machines installed in India and its cardholders are responsible for over 41 percent of all ATM transactions in the country.