Mar 25, 2025 03:04 PM IST
These charges will be applicable once users exhaust their free monthly limits; Five transactions in metro cities and three in non-metros at other banks’ ATMs.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved a hike in ATM interchange fees, raising the cost of cash withdrawals from May 1, 2025 onwards.
What are ATM interchange fees?
ATM interchange fees refer to the amount one bank pays to another when a customer uses a different bank’s ATM to withdraw money.
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What will be the new ATM interchange charges?
The new charges which were pushed by white-label ATM operators, will be as follows, according to a Business Today report.
Cash withdrawal fee: ₹19 per transaction from ₹17 earlier.
Balance inquiry fee: ₹7 per transaction from ₹6 earlier.
These charges will be applicable once users exhaust their free monthly limits, which are five transactions in metro cities and three in non-metro places at other banks’ ATMs.
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This fee hike also came about based on a proposal by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the company behind the digital payments framework Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
On top of this, white-label ATM operators had also been lobbying for an increase, arguing that the old fees were unsustainable due to the rising operational costs.
The charges are also likely to impacted customers of smaller banks more since many of them rely on other banks’ ATM networks due to their limited infrastructure.
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The only way to avoid these additional fees is to stick to the home bank’s ATMs or increase the usage of digital payment methods rather than cash.
