Bank customers have expressed disgust over arbitrary charges on their accounts by some banks. Whereas enlightened victims who have means to pursue their cases have dragged their bankers to court over such unfair and unexplained charges, many others who cannot afford to pay legal fees take it in good faith.
Numerous charges by banks are giving depositors sleepless nights. “I bought Daar Communications shares in 2008 but I was not offered any certificate. So, First Registrars who handled the transactions asked me to do an indemnity and get a letter of attestation from my bank. My bank charged me N3000 for that letter. The painful aspect about the whole thing is that the registrars were not satisfied. They sent me back to the bank for another document which the bank refused to issue. That is how I lost my money and the share certificate. If you request a bank statement, you are charged for it. But CBN always claims that depositors have the right to be issued their account statements by mere asking,” a customer with Access Bank Plc, Aminu Kano Crescent, Abuja, narrated his ordeal.
The numerous charges
Among charges banks usually deduct from customers accounts include: 5 per cent VAT on every current account; Commission on Turnover (CoT), usually N5 on every N1,000 withdrawn or transferred from current account; SMS alert charges; penalty fee for loan default; Searching fee usually N5,000 paid to credit agency to establish the credit worthy status of those seeking loans.
Other charges are; monthly maintenance fee for every current account which differs from one bank to another; N5 inter-state commission for every N1,000 transferred into or withdrawn from savings accounts in a state different from where the savings account is opened or domiciled (up country), etc.
Officials, however, defended their banks on this allegation of needless charges, arguing that they do not impose charges on customers’ account outside the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s stipulated in the guidelines.
Open charges
Some of the open charges in some banks are: Zenith Bank: Value Added Tax (VAT) on Commission On Transaction (COT) is 0.5 percent while