A new twist hits Equity Bank customers as the institution introduces an annual fee of Ksh240 for holding ATM cards. This applies irrespective of whether one uses Visa or Mastercard.
Originally, card acquisition/application costs a fee of Ksh700, usually charged one-off.
The newly introduced annual fee(KSh240) makes the lender’s ATM card one of the most expensive in the country.
Without prior notice, customers have already started receiving messages alerting them of a deduction for the money from their accounts. “A fee has been deducted from your account (XXXX) Amount: KES: 240 Desc: Annual Debit Card Fee,” is the message being received by most customers.
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The institution has at least 9 million accounts/customers. Therefore, the bank will be making a whooping Ksh2.16 billion annually, assuming every account holder has an active ATM card.
In addition, for every transaction using the ATM card. The new fee makes the whole cost of holding an Equity Bank ATM or Mastercard too high compared to other banks’ costs for the same.
