ATM cash withdrawal fee hiked: Check new charges beyond free limit; Here's how it affects customers

New Delhi, June 12: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to increase certain charges on automated teller machines (ATMs) with regard to cash withdrawal.

These changes include an increase in charges for transactions beyond the free monthly permissible limit, a new free ATM transaction limit and an increase in the interchange fee per transaction.

The lenders can levy charges on customers within this limit, once they exhaust their free ATM withdrawals. This revised rate will be effective from January 1, 2022, the central bank said in a notification.

"The recommendations of the panel were comprehensively examined. It is also observed that the last change in interchange fee structure for ATM transactions was in August 2012, while the charges payable by customers were last revised in August 2014. A substantial time has thus elapsed since these fees were last changed," the central bank said in its circular while revising the interchange fees for ATM transactions.

RBI also said that customers will be eligible for five free transactions, which includes financial and non-financial transactions, every month from their own bank ATMs.

The changes were announced on the basis of the suggestions of a committee set up by RBI in June 2019, under the chairmanship of the chief executive of the Indian Banks' Association to review the entire gamut of ATM charges and fees with a particular focus on interchange structure for ATM transactions, news agency PTI reported.