Commercialbank has started to charge an annual fee of QR50 for its Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards. The bank’s call centre confirmed on Monday that the new fee was levied from the accounts of ATM card holders from this year. The centre clarified in response to a query from this newspaper that QR50, which a number of bank customers said was recently deducted from their accounts, was neither the fee for renewing an ATM card nor was it a fee for transactions conducted through the ATM. “It is an annual ATM card fee we have started charging from customers,” an official of the call centre said. Commercialbank customers have been confused as they have been getting messages on their mobile phones stating that QR50 has been debited from their bank accounts without specifying any reason. Asked for official comment yesterday, the bank’s Public Relations Department said their Call Centre could give the necessary details. A message e-mailed to the Corporate Communications Department of the bank later, for a comment on the issue, remained unanswered as of going to press. Several other banks this newspaper spoke to said they did not charge any annual fee for an ATM card. “We don’t have any plans to charge such a fee in future, too,” said a senior official of the Doha Bank. But another Doha Bank official said that if all other banks in the country began charging an annual fee for ATM cards they too will follow suit. http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=February2009&file=Local_News200902041445.xml

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