As banks have revised their tariffs sharply upwards for customer transactions, it has created furore amongst customers who consider the charges to be excessive.
If Banks believe that it costs them to provide these services and hence need to be passed on to the customers, let us accept it on principle. Having said that, there needs to be a sense of fairness and equity in charging for these services.
I propose the model of “Annualizing the count of transactions as basis of charging”
- For example, if upto 4 ATM Transactions there are no charges, then Banks must agree to 48 ATM Transactions in a financial year without any charge. For example, even if a customer uses an ATM (let’s assume same bank ATM for simplicity) 10 times in a month, he should not be charged until he crosses 48 ATM transactions in the entire year.
- Likewise, for cash deposits. If customers can deposit cash 3 times in a month without any charge, then they should be allowed to do so without any charge 36 times in a year.
- And the customers must have the facility to know the count of their ATM (own bank/other bank), cash deposit transactions till date. That way, they can plan ahead and not be surprised when they face the charges for exceeding.
Corollary to the above:
- If a customer is unable to withdraw cash in an ATM because the ATM did not have any money, that should not be counted as a Transaction for the purpose of the charges.
- Likewise, if a customers checks his balance prior to withdrawal in the same session, that should be treated as just 1 ATM Transaction.
Can we now have a discussion?
Strands of thought 
N Ramesh said,
March 28, 2017 at 10:26 am
The kind of clarity and wisdom (sanity and sensibility included) you seem to have in spite of not being a Banker at all is no doubt praiseworthy, which the powers that be in the so-called domain of Commercial Banking do not seem to have, for all practical Customer Need Based Banking purposes, to say the least as of now – which is clearly going to backfire on them sooner than later !
Thus Spake The New Age Sage !