ATM, where you pay more and less
Bancomat, the results of the SOStariffe analysis on bank withdrawal costs. Emanuela Rossi's article
Closure of branches, reduction of staff, elimination of ATMs, more simply called ATMs: this is a process that has been going on for years now and that appears in almost all the industrial plans presented by the banking groups in the country. Trend, especially in the case of the reduction of ATMs, which goes hand in hand with the increase in digital payments and which could create inconvenience for some categories of account holders given that already today the withdrawal of money from the ATM has different costs, especially among online banks and traditional banks.
Without forgetting that an investigation is underway with the Antitrust regarding the project drawn up by the Bancomat Spa consortium to intervene precisely on the costs of withdrawals from ATMs and on interbank commissions.
SOStariffe , a free comparator that allows you to compare the costs of different services (in addition to accounts and cards, also electricity, gas, mobile, loans and mortgages, TV, insurance), has decided to make a comparative analysis of withdrawal costs.
I STUDY
The data of the study were obtained from the analysis of the information sheets of the cards (debit or credit) of the main current accounts or cards with Iban. In total, 26 credit institutions were examined, also thanks to the comparator of current account offers of SOStariffe.it, among those with many branches active on the national territory (traditional banks) or active mainly through the Internet channel.
THE COMPARISON OF COSTS
The SOStariffe analysis highlights the differences between the average costs of using cards linked to current accounts in terms of withdrawals from ATMs.
As regards the withdrawal at the counter with a debit card, the cost is equal to 0 both in traditional and online banks, while from other banks it is equal to 1.83 euros from the former and 0.49 euros from the latter (0.89 euros in case for an amount of less than 100 euros). Costs rise with credit cards which – in case of withdrawal in all ATMs – is equal to 4% with traditional credit institutions and 3.8% with online ones.
The cost of using the Pos is not counted in any case while as regards the annual cost of the debit card it is zero in online banks and equal to 0.18 euros in traditional ones. The figures rise for the annual cost of the credit card which reaches 23.33 euros in the first case and even 45 euros in the second.
ADVICE IN CASE OF CLOSING OF ATM DOORS
From the online comparator there are also suggestions to help consumers cope with the progressive closure of branches by banks, a trend that has definitely become more pronounced in recent years. We start with the advice to make a few large withdrawals, to avoid paying the commission several times to the ATM, and continue with that of focusing on payments by debit or credit card or on payments with smartphones via wallets such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay which do not include commissions.
Thirdly, SOStariffe suggests that you consider opening a new current account with an online bank. In these cases, in fact, the withdrawal by debit card is almost always commission-free if made in euros. Then there is the hypothesis of choosing a new current account with a credit institution that has a good number of branches in your area of the city, in order to be able to withdraw while avoiding the extra costs of commissions.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/sostariffe-inchiesta-banche-cosa-dice/ on Mon, 28 Jun 2021 06:00:41 +0000.