ATHENS, April.2- The National Bank of Greece on Monday announced a new ATM service for citizens of other countries who are living and working in Greece, which enables them to send money back home securely and speedily, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. National Bank’s ATMs were recently upgraded to allow for this new service from more than 1,300 spots around the country. The service is available to all customers who open up the new “Family Fast” account, which is addressed to citizens of other countries living in Greece, and offers a range of privileges in addition to this innovative method of sending remittances.
For the time being, the destination countries for remittances via National Bank ATMs are Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, India, Moldova, Ukraine, Pakistan, Romania, Russia and the Philippines. Gradually, the system will incorporate more countries.
National Bank (NBG) vice president Ioannis Pechlivanidis, presenting the new product, stressed the importance that the Bank places on incorporating these citizens into the banking system.
Beneficiaries
He particularly referred to the citizens of countries in which the National Bank Group has an active presence, noting the ability of serving those citizens and their families through the National Bank branches in those countries. The customers who choose NBG Albania, or UBB in Bulgaria, or Banca Romaneasca in Romania, as the destination bank, will also have a 50 percent discount on the cost of the remittance, which will be returned to the customer’s account at the end of the month of the transaction, he explained.
Apart from this innovative way of sending remittances, the Family Fast package also has a substantially low cost that renders it particularly attractive, according to NBG.
More specifically, the cost of sending remittances via the National Bank ATMs is 10 euros per transaction, compared to 17 euros per transaction for executing the same transaction at the counter inside the bank. The fee is deducted from the customer’s account at the time of the transaction, and covers expenses incurred to the Bank abroad. Consequently, the recipient of the remittance will not pay any other charge at the other end.
Other privileges
The other privileges contained in the package are automatic payment of utility bills, for as long as the account is active, without any surcharge; free issue of the international ETHNOcash card for direct access to a customer’s account from ATMs outside Greece; free transfer of money from account to account within the National Bank system; ability to pay mobile telephony bills, insurance premiums or various subscriptions via standing order; the ability to use the account for transactions in investment products; ability to have the account credited with pension payments if the customer receives a pension from any Greek pension fund; and service even if the customer decides to return permanently to his country of origin. The estimated number of Albanians working in Greece is 700.000.
