Bank customers have raised the alarm over what they described as fraudulent charges from the banks despite efforts by the authorities to curb such practices.

Investigations conducted by National Mirror showed that some banks deduct monthly maintenance fees on Automated Teller Machines, ATM, cards, after the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, abolished the N100 charge on third-party withdrawals and approved N100 annual maintenance charge.

Other spurious charges include N500 monthly maintenance fee for current accounts and N5 inter-state commission on every N1,000 transaction.

Some banks charge as high as N50 on SMS alerts in place of the N4 that GSM networks usually charge for text messages.

An Ecobank customer, Miss Sandra David, who lives in Oyo State, said her bank deducted N300 from the money sent to her from Lagos State recently, adding that she could not withdraw the amount she needed because of the deduction.

She said: “I wanted to use the money to pay school fees and buy some books, but N300 was deducted from my savings account.”

A civil servant in Lagos, Mrs. Ade Lawson, said: “I used to bank with Ecobank but because of the way they deduct my money anyhow, I stopped using it. For instance, there is no alert when you deposit and even when money is being withdrawn from the account.”

Another customer, Engineer Taiwo Bolarinwa, asked: “What is the essence of the N100 card maintenance fee they remove every month?”

According to him, when the banks were deducting N100 inter bank ATM charges, they never deducted up to the amount from his account because he did not patronise other banks except the one he opened an account with.
He added that some banks had even deducted the illegal N100 monthly charge in arrears.

A customer of one of the rescued banks, Mr. Kunle Ibiyemi, complained about arbitrary charges on bank transactions.

He said: “Keystone Bank even charges me inter-state fees because I opened my account in Benin and now operate it in Lagos. They come up with so many charges that should ordinarily not be attached to a transaction.”

A salary account owner with Union Bank, Mr. John Oladejo, said the bank backdated the monthly ATM card maintenance fees to October 2012 and deducted the money up to April, this year.

He said: “Between March and April 2013, the bank has deducted N600 ATM card maintenance fees from my account. Guaranty Trust Bank has not deducted any amount from my account except First Bank that removed N100 card maintenance fee for March 2013.”

When National Mirror asked the Customer Service Officer of Union Bank on Broad Street, Lagos, she insisted that the charge was the monthly ATM card maintenance fee, adding that other banks charged as well. She could not explain further.

Last month, the CBN cancelled the N100 monthly ATMs card maintenance fee introduced by some banks, pegging the maintenance fee at N100 annually

. It also pegged the mandatory cost of SMS alert at N4 subject to the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, directives.
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/customers-cry-out-over-banks-arbitrary-charges/