6 Ways To Reduce How Much You Pay For Bank Charges
We all know them: “SMS Charge,” “Card Maintenance charge,” and all the other charges we usually get at one point or the other from banks. Nobody likes them but we all seem to get them, be annoyed at them and then forget about it till the next bank charge alert comes in.
What a lot of us don’t realize is that these charges can amount to quite a lot when you add them all together. Besides, the banks make so much money already so why should we be giving them out if the little we have? Nigeria is hard, abeg.
That’s why we have put together this blog post for you because every Naira you can save in costs is important. These six ways should help you reduce how much you give to your bank in the name of “bank charges”:
- Try to deal more with people that use the same bank: For example, if you want to send money to someone and you use Sterling Bank, ask them if they have a Sterling account first. Same thing if you use a GTB or Mainstreet Bank account. This way you don’t get charged N52 transaction fee for sending money to other banks. Always try as much possible to transact with people that use the same bank as you. If you are using the FairMoney app for transactions, you can enjoy 30 free bank transfers monthly.
- Limit ATM use to your bank only: According to the CBN, On-us (withdrawal from your bank’s ATM) attracts no charges, but Not on-us (withdrawal from other bank’s ATM) in Nigeria attracts a fee of N65 after the third withdrawal within the same month. If you make a lot of ATM withdrawals in a month, you can imagine how much that N65 will amount to at the end of the day.
- Replace SMS alerts with Email alerts: Email alerts to the same thing as SMS alerts except in your email (so an internet connection is needed). However, while your bank doesn’t charge you for email alerts, you’ll be charged N4 for each SMS your bank sends to you. Our guy Efe once had about N600 in SMS charges and he wanted to cry. On the other hand, if you choose email alerts, you don’t get any charges.
- Stop requesting for your bank statements: A lot of people don’t know this but your bank is supposed to send you your bank statement every month and they usually do this via email. However, if you request for physical copies of your bank statement, you’ll be charged N20 per page which could be expensive. In other words, even if you have to request for your bank statement, make sure you request for a soft copy that will be sent to your email.
- Use software tokens instead of hardware tokens: Physical tokens cost about N4000 whereas if you opt for the software token option, you only get charged N4 for each SMS you receive for OTPs. Also, hardware tokens will need replacement if they are damaged, if you lose them or if they expire, which means you’ll have to pay another N4000 to get another one.
- Avoid issuing dud cheques: In countries like the US, issuing dud cheques is a crime. Here in Nigeria it is not a crime but it does attract huge fees and penalties. Typically, the issuer is charged 1% of the amount on the dud check or N5,000 whichever is larger. In other words, the minimum you will pay if you issue a dud check is N5,000 which can be avoided by NOT issuing dud cheques.
So, if you are always annoyed when you get those bank charge alerts on your phone, now you have a way to do something about it. Don’t say we never did anything for you o!
As always, when you win, we win. To the moon!
