PHL banks to raise interbank ATM withdrawal fees by 36% to 50% in Q4

Philippines banks will charge customers 36.36 percent to 50 percent more for interbank withdrawals on automated teller machines (ATMs) to pay for the machines' operating costs.

 

In an emailed statement, BDO Unibank Inc. said “BDO ATM Debit and Cash Cardholders withdrawing through any of the ATMs of Bancnet, Expressnet and Megalink will be charged a fee of P15 per transaction effective November 4.

 

It said the higher withdrawal fee – from P11 to P15 – is “an industry-wide development to basically cover the cost of operating the ATMs.”

 

It clarified, however, that no cost will be applied to BDO ATM Debit Cardholders–those with regular deposit accounts–on withdrawal transactions done through any of the over 2,000 BDO ATMs nationwide.

 

On the other hand, holders of BDO Cash Cards or Reloadable Prepaid Debit Cards are now being charged P2 per transaction on withdrawals through any BDO ATM, which took effect in September 2012.

 

In a separate advisory on its website, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. said it will charge higher withdrawal fees on other banks' ATM cards starting October 1, 2013.

 

Metrobank customers withdrawing from ATMs of savings banking unit PSBank will still be charged P7.50 per transaction.

 

Security Bank is raising the withdrawal fees by 50 percent to P15 from P10 starting October 15 for card holders of Security Bank CashLink, CashCard, GiftCard and its co-branded card variants that will be used to get money from any ATM of other banks.

 

The ATM fee for balance inquiry at other bank’s ATMs will stay at P1.00 per transaction, Security Bank said.

 

Ayala-led Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is raising the balance inquiry fee to P2 from P1.50 for clients using other bank's ATMs starting November 1.

 

In October 2012, BPI increased by 50 percent its withdrawal service fee on clients using non-BPI ATMs to P15 from P10. – Danessa Rivera/VS, GMA News