What Your Bank Charges You, and What Is Free

Sending money through Raast costs nothing, and most people are paying for transfers anyway. Raast is the State Bank's own instant payment system, person to person transfers on it are free, and it sits inside the same banking app most people already use to make a paid transfer.

The charge people usually pay is on interbank funds transfer, which is a different rail with a different price. Knowing which button you are pressing is worth real money over a year.

What is free and what is not

The interbank allowance is per account per month, so it resets. Somebody sending rent or a salary once a month may never reach it, while somebody paying suppliers weekly passes it in the first week.

Use the free rail on purpose

In most banking apps the two options sit next to each other and the app does not tell you one is free. Look for Raast by name, or for a transfer that asks for a mobile number rather than an account number.

Set your own mobile number as your Raast ID so people can pay you without needing your account details, and ask whoever pays you regularly to use it. Our guide to using the Raast payment system covers the setup.

You can still use Raast with an IBAN if you have not set an ID, so a missing Raast ID is not a reason to fall back to the paid rail.

The charges that quietly recur

1. Ask whether your account has a minimum balance penalty.
2. Ask what the debit card costs to issue and what it costs each year.
3. Ask whether SMS alerts are charged monthly.
4. Ask what a statement or a balance certificate costs.
5. Ask what happens if a cheque of yours is returned.

Individually these are small. On a modest balance, an annual card fee, monthly alert charges and a minimum balance penalty together can take more out of an account than it earns in profit.

Ask for the schedule of charges

Every bank publishes one, usually twice a year, and it lists every fee the bank may apply. It is the document that answers all of the questions above at once, and staff will hand it over or point you at it on the website if you ask.

Read the sections for your own account type rather than the whole thing. If a charge appears on your statement that is not in the schedule, that is worth raising immediately rather than absorbing.

Withdrawing cash is where small fees hide

Using your own bank's ATM is normally the cheapest way to take cash out. Cardless withdrawal, QR withdrawal and using another bank's machine each carry their own charge, and a printed receipt can cost a few rupees on top.

Interbank ATM withdrawal fees have been revised upward before, and we covered one such change in our piece on the 1Link fee increase. Taking out one larger amount rather than several small ones is the simplest way to reduce what you pay.

Choose the account rather than the branch

Charges differ between banks and between account types at the same bank. A basic account aimed at ordinary customers usually carries fewer of them than a product sold on features you will not use.

If you are opening an account, ask for the charges before you sign rather than after, and our guide to opening a bank account in Pakistan covers what to take with you. If a charge is disputed later, the bank's own helpline is the first step and our list of bank numbers has them.

Common questions about bank charges

Is Raast really free?

Person to person transfers on Raast are reported as free, with no transaction fee. It is run by the State Bank rather than by an individual bank.

When does an interbank transfer start costing money?

Reported practice is free up to Rs 25,000 per account per month, then capped at 0.1 per cent of the amount or Rs 200, whichever is lower.

Why was I charged for a transfer I thought was free?

Most likely you used the interbank option after passing the monthly allowance, rather than Raast. Check which rail the app used.

Can I see all the charges in one place?

Yes. Ask for the schedule of charges, which every bank publishes and updates periodically.

What if a charge looks wrong?

Compare it against the schedule, then raise it with the bank in writing. A charge that is not in the schedule is worth questioning.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 29 August 2026. Nothing here is read on a State Bank page. The free Raast position, the Rs 25,000 monthly interbank allowance, the cap of 0.1 per cent or Rs 200, the per leaf cheque book cost and the cardless and QR withdrawal fees are reported, and individual banks set their own amounts within the rules. That is why this page tells you to get your own bank's schedule of charges rather than relying on our figures: the schedule is the authority for your account and ours is a general picture. Charges are revised periodically, commonly twice a year.