After State Bank of India some more large banks—HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Union Bank—decided to impose limits on the number of free transactions customers can undertake on home bank ATMs. Banks are, however, differentiating between high-end and low-end customers and some large lenders like ICICI Bank have not yet revised their limits. HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have said that effective December 1 they will charge customers for more than five transactions at their own bank's ATM. Over five transactions customers will have to pay Rs 20 per additional transaction plus taxes. This limit applies for customers in Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. HDFC Bank will impose charges additionally Rs 8.5 for non-cash transactions and it will be Rs 9.5 for Axis Bank.
RBI had allowed banks to limit free transactions to five at home bank ATMs and three at other banks from November but most banks are waiting to see what the competition does. SBI, whose customers are among the most active ATM card users, has been the first to impose the limits. Another issue is inadequate cash or low withdrawal limits in third-party ATMs. This forces an accountholder to engage in multiple transactions and exhausts their limit faster.
