Competing with banks boasting large market shares, a rising number of small banks are resorting to 0% fees for cash withdrawals from ATMs in their own network or from those belonging to other domestic financial institutions.
Banks usually charge 0.2%-0.5% fees for cash withdrawal from their own ATMs. In the case where cards are used at the ATMs of another bank, the fee includes a fixed sum (2.5 RON as a rule), plus a variable one, at least 0.5%.
Given that Romanians withdrew 21.49bn RON (5bn euros) in the second quarter alone, banks collected fees of at least 43m RON (around 10m euros), taking into account a 0,2% fee.
Garanti Bank, a small player domestically, which is, however, controlled by one of the strongest Turkish financial groups, charges 0% for cash withdrawals from GarantiBank 24 RON cards both for operations carried out at its own ATMs and at those of other banks.
Okan Yurtsever, the bank's retail manager, says the offer including the 0% fee was launched on the market as early as September 2008, but it has started being publicised quite recently.
The maximum sum that can be withdrawn per day from Garanti Bank card for individuals stands at 3,000 RON and the 0% fee is also applied for card renewal or management, for account balance checks or for payments to national or foreign merchants.
In the case of Libra Bank, too, Libra MasterCard Simple and Libra Salary card owners benefit from a 0% withdrawal fee at all ATMs in Romania, with the offer being available during the entire card validity period for the cards issued until the end of October. Cards can be used by individuals and sole traders and the maximum sum that can be withdrawn in one day may not exceed 5,000 RON. The bank does not charge any fee for card renewal, account balance checks or payments to Romanian and foreign retailers.
Millennium Bank applies a 0% fee for withdrawals from its own ATMs only for clients choosing packages allowing them to receive salaries on its own Visa Electron cards. Intesa Sanpaolo Bank has a similar offer for Maestro cards.
The 0% fee for cash withdrawal from ATMs only seldom appears in the offers of banks with important market shares, being included in special conditions.
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