SBI limits ATM withdrawals to Rs20,000 per day for its debit cards
31 Oct 2018
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Beginning today, holders of debit cards issued by State Bank of India (SBI) will be allowed to draw a maximum of Rs20,000 per day against Rs40,000 allowed till yesterday.
"It has been decided to decrease the cash withdrawal limits of debit cards issued/ being issued on Classic and Maestro platforms from Rs40,000 to Rs20,000 with effect from 31 October 2018," SBI stated in a circular.
SBI managing director PK Gupta said the move was taken in order to encourage and facilitate more digital transactions as also check fraudulent cash withdrawals from ATMs.
Also, according to sources, the SBI Classic debit card is not a chip-based card and there are concerns about its security.
“In view of the increase in numbers of complaints received by the bank around fraudulent transactions at ATMs, and to encourage digital/cashless transactions, it has been decided to decrease the cash withdrawal limits of Debit cards issued/ being issued on Classic and Maestro platforms from Rs 40,000 to Rs 20,00 with effect from October 31, 2018,” SBI stated.
Gupta said that after analysing all the ATM transactions, the authorities have found that most of the withdrawals are less than Rs20,000 per day. Gupta, however, claimed that all of the fraudulent withdrawals amounted to Rs40,000. “So this is basically to protect the customers and secondly, we want that more such (digital) transactions should happen,” PTI quoted Gupta as saying.
“Let us see if customers can do more transactions through digital means also,” Gupta said, adding, “there are so many digital payment mechanisms available.”
However, these is some solution for those with higher cash needs. SBI said if a customer requires a higher daily cash withdrawal limit, then he or she can apply for a higher card variant.
The move, which will affect over 420 million customers of SBI comes at a time of the festival season when withdrawals peak.
