One particular news that has been trending lately is the new directive that has been given to CBN and banks in general, which is for them to begin to tax all mobile transfers. And not just any tax, they’re to deduct 0.5% of the amount transferred. That’s a lot of money, I must say.
That is to say; transfer of N1000 will attract an extra fee of N50. A transfer of a million naira will attract a fee of N5000. It’s crazy. Because when we think about it, we’ve not seen the point of this particular tax. They say that it’s for cybersecurity, but it’s just way too expensive to be for the good of the common man.
And if you think that this is the only tax we pay when it comes to banks, you’d be wrong. There are a couple of other charges that we pay all because we embraced mobile banking. There is ATM maintenance fee, there is the usual bank charge that comes with each transaction you make online. Those charge that shoot your money up from the intended N10,000 you were willing to send to N10,050 that the bank wants you to send. The N50 goes to them by the way.
For me, I think the most annoying of them is the ATM fee, or the maintenance fee. Those are the real killers because no matter how safe you think your money is, they can ruin it for you. Deducting N50 and N10 from time to time, until whatever amount you thought you had has reduced to something that just makes no sense.
There is nothing I hate more than thinking I have N10,000 in my bank account, but coming online to see N9,995 simply because the bank had decided to deduct N5, thereby making me unable to use the money for what I initially wanted. And since N5 can’t be transferred because it’s too small, I’d have to ask someone to loan me N500, or even N1000. If I should begin telling you all about how these annoying charges have ruined plans for me, this post will be flagged for being too long.
But then, what can I do? I’m just an ordinary citizen, the government says we should jump and we have to decide how high we’re willing to jump. This is one reason keeping money in the bank keeps looking less and less lucrative for me because in one way or the other, both the banks and the government will keep looking for ways to take it from you.
I know that the banks have to make their money somehow, after all, they have to pay their staff and they have to make money, that’s the reason they’re in the business to begin with. But it gets to a time when they just do too much, and right now, they’re doing too much. Crypto would have been a great way to store assets, but they’re blocking that from all corners right now.
With banks, your money is not really yours. It’s only yours when you withdraw it and have it in your hand. But as long as it’s in the bank, they can decide to take it from you, freeze your account and deduct whatever stinking charge they want, and you can’t do anything about it.
Honestly, I don’t really know where this country is headed to. So far, dealing crypto is illegal, I’ve even gotten warnings from my bank apps to cease and desist, as if I was to begin with. Hehe… I just pray they (both the government and the banks) stop with all these charges and let us breathe. I’m still trying to push myself through school, it’s just not fair that every transfer I make would take even more money from me. It’s just annoying. Are they trying to force us to the period before mobile apps? Because nothing would stop me from stopping all transfer and going to the bank for all my transactions.
Mobile transfer is one reason the banking halls are not as crowded as they used to be years before, but if these guys are willing to see that amount of people grace their halls again, then they should keep this up. Because if there is one thing I’m certain of, it’s the fact that I’m not the only one pained by this.
I guess we’d have to see what tomorrow would bring for us.
In the not-so-distant past, banks in Brazil had fees for various services. In Brazil there has been a process of bankarization, with the introduction of numerous digital banks. This has led to several services having their fees reduced to zero. In the past we only had 4 big banks, today we have hundreds. This increase has ended the monopoly and made bank fees practically zero.
These charges are the source of incomes for the bank...but it is strange to pay them for their services and that too for keeping our money. I already had few argument over it and later I nailed them on their mistakes....I was more satisfied.
Our idea and desire to reduce property encroachment may be just a wish, but we cannot give up on it. It seems that the order that governs societies, banks and governments dominates us, because we know very well that money and wealth are one of the criteria of domination over humanity. Anyway, we live in the real world under their rule and they dominate us whether we like it or not. It is understandable that everything has a cost and zeroing this cost is one of the challenges even here in the crypto world! But maybe it can be divided for two discussions of cost and freedom. At first glance, let's reduce the cost to zero, which is a wish. And in the second discussion, let's deal with transactions with complete freedom without the interference and influence of environmental factors on us. Uncensored!
That policy is really crazy. I was shocked when I saw it but we don’t have a choice like this
We gotta pay!
0.5% indeed huge and I think it's unreasonable. It's just a way to grab some money from general people. I just feel that banking system can never be friendly of general people and their action proves that again and again.
This is really very high. If seen, the bank gives loan to others using public saving money and the interest on that loan is much more than the interest given on the savings account and other policies, so the bank earns a lot profit from there.
After that there were many more charges which bank deduct from its customers for other services.
Now too much money is being taken in transactions, it is making the common citizen pocket even looser.