Commission for air: how Russian banks "rob" their customers

Leonid Zlotnikov

As Novye Izvestia has already reported, Russian banks intend to drastically reduce the bar for free transfers of customers between their own accounts.

Moreover, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the State Duma approved a limit of duty-free transfers of funds "to myself" of 1.4 million rubles per month, which also applies to transfers via the fast payment system. But now it is proposed to reduce this limit to 300-600 thousand rubles, or even up to 100 thousand rubles per month!

Moreover, representatives of small banks want to maintain a limit of 1.4 million rubles. for transfers of citizens' own funds without commission, while large banks do not like the fact that citizens withdraw their funds and, in particular, salaries to other banks.

The discussion of the bill in the State Duma continues. The final amount of the free threshold has not yet been agreed.

Experts of the PZDC channel consider the position of large banks extremely doubtful. In fact, they want to introduce new levies from their customers: 

"Banking friends with big appetites don't care that the limit is approved by the Central Bank and the State Duma, now they want to limit Russians to 300 thousand rubles for free. Banks complain that they lose up to 90 billion rubles of commission income per year on their kindness. Interestingly, the banks themselves take commissions for everything in a row, here is just a list of those operations for which they pull three skins – and only on the way..."

Analysts cite several examples of such irrepressible banking appetites.

- "Sber" decided last year that it was time to start taking money for money transfers to bank cards of other banks. The commission is 1.25% of the transfer amount, but not less than 30 rubles and not more than 150 rubles. The bank does not hide that the rent is protective in nature: there is nothing to take money, we can provide for all your needs ourselves. It seems to be a little, but it's enough for a gourmand Gref for a pumpkin latte on an alternative milk.

- VTB, having informed that operations can now be carried out in yuan, did not forget about its gesheft. The maximum amount of transfers per day is 20 million rubles in Chinese equivalent. And the commission for such operations will cost up to 1% of the amount, but not less than 15 and not more than 200 yuan.

- "MTS-Bank" from February 1, subscribers of the same mobile operator suddenly had to pay a commission for replenishment of the balance. The surcharge, reassure customers, will not exceed 1% of the payment amount, and there is still an alternative way to avoid paying interest. As you may have guessed, you can top up your balance without commission exclusively with an MTS Bank card. 

- Gazprombank was also "forced". He allegedly resisted with all his might, but still changed the cost of informing on the cards. From 01.02.2023, the cost of the "Mobile Information" service for sending push and SMS messages amounted to 99 rubles per month. Who is dissatisfied – welcome to the head of the bank Andrey Akimov. More recently, he was charging for the issuance of UnionPay cards for 15 thousand rubles, without guaranteeing their uninterrupted operation in Europe.

- Well, Zenit Bank decided to earn money by charging fees on cards ... in the absence of transactions on the account for more than 12 months. For a simple account, you will be charged 300 rubles, $ 4 USD or € 4 in the account currency – and this is with an account balance of less than 3 thousand rubles. Well, after these extortionate commissions, they will soon rip you off again and again – already for a complete zero: it's your fault that I want to eat.