Banks charge a fee for almost every service

Cyprus bank customers are charged for virtually every transaction possible as banks are imposing fees for even maintaining a simple current account or withdrawing cash with the assistance of a cashier.

A webpage set up by the Finance Ministry presents charges imposed by Cypriot banks, for consumers to be aware of, and compare.

According to the site, available only in Greek, Bank of Cyprus charges EUR 12 per year for maintaining a current account of up to EUR 3,000, with fees increasing according to the amount deposited. For amounts in excess of EUR 1 mln, the charge is EUR 2,000.

Hellenic Bank charges retail clients for maintaining their current account between EUR 12 and EUR 24 per year, while CDB Bank charges up to EUR 50 for individuals.

The Housing Finance Corporation charges clients EUR 12 and Ancoria Bank EUR 10.

Astrobank’s charges start at EUR 12 for accounts up to EUR 5,000, with charges reaching EUR 1,600 for amounts over EUR 1 mln.

Eurobank charges EUR 20 for clients with international activities, while local retail clients are not charged.

RCB does not apply any charges if the average monthly balance of all accounts is at least EUR 10,000 or monthly transactions of all cards are a minimum EUR 1,000.

If the average monthly balance of all accounts is less than EUR 10,000 or the monthly transactions of all cards do not exceed EUR 1,000, the bank charges EUR 60 per year.

USB charges retail clients a fee of EUR 24 and international clients EUR 100, while the National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) charges retail clients EUR 40 for deposits up to EUR 15,000, EUR 80 for accounts up to EUR 50,000 and EUR 100 for accounts holding deposits of more than EUR 50,000.

Alpha Bank does current account.

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Meanwhile, banks have begun charging for simple transactions made by clients at the tills of their branches or raising already existing charges with BoC and HB announcing the relevant hikes earlier this year.

A typical example is BoC’s introduction of a charge on cash withdrawals made with the assistance of a bank cashier in March. Cash withdrawals at the till are charged from 15 cents to EUR 2 at the till.

Hellenic Bank has introduced a fee of 15 cents for any logistic action (e.g. transfers between accounts of the same bank) taking place at the till and 30c for cash withdrawals made with the assistance of a cashier.

Bank of Cyprus has also introduced a fee of 15c for transfers between accounts, for transfers to a third party’s account and for deposits in a third account.

Hellenic Bank does not charge for transfers between accounts of the same customer within the bank if the amount is under EUR 5,000.

Bank of Cyprus increased the fee for issuing a cheque book to EUR25 from EUR15 when the booklet is ordered from the branch network and to EUR 16 from EUR 6 when the booklet is ordered online.

Furthermore, the bank will be charging a fee of EUR2 for cashing checks issued by BoC, whereas until now there was a fee only for the redemption of cheques issued by other local banks.

The Ministry of Finance created the webpage in order to implement Article 8 of the Law on Comparability of Fees related to Payment Accounts of 2017 [Law 64 (I) / 2017], under which the ministry must ensure that consumers have free access to at least one fee-comparison website. http://www.mof.gov.cy/mof/Comparefees/comparefees.nsf/ind ex_gr/index_gr?opendocument