ATM users not to be penalised for failed transactions; no charges to be levied on balance enquiry

If you are a debit card user and frequent ATMs or even if you withdraw money using credit cards, here is some good news from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

If you visit an ATM and find there is no money in it or if the transaction has failed due to technical reasons, your bank can’t count this among the free ATM transactions permitted to you every month.

The Reserve Bank on Wednesday asked banks not to count failed transactions at ATMs due to technical reasons as part of “free ATM transactions” permitted every month.

Besides, the use of ATMs for balance enquiry and fund transfers too will not be part of the free transactions facility given to a customer.

Banks provide a certain number of free transactions at ATMs to their customers and beyond that impose charges, a PTI report said.

The RBI’s clarification in this regard comes after it came to the central bank’s notice that transactions that failed due to technical reasons, non-availability of currency in ATMs are also included in the number of free ATM transactions.

“It is hereby clarified that transactions which fail on account of technical reasons like hardware and software issues, non-availability of cash, and any other reason attributable to the bank should not be counted as valid ATM transactions for the customer.

“Consequently, no charges therefor shall be levied,” the Reserve Bank said.

Further, non-cash withdrawal transactions (such as balance inquiry, cheque book request, payment of taxes, funds transfer), which constitute ‘on-us’ transactions (when a card is used at an ATM of the bank which has issued the card) shall also not be part of the number of free ATM transactions.