Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme )
People willing to know about their transactions can ask the bank to send them an SMS or email notifications about the payments. While some banks offer the SMS service for free, others charge for it.
Most recently, Tatra Banka, the third biggest bank in the country, decided to impose a fee for SMS notifications. Clients will pay €1 a month, the Sme daily reported.
The reason for imposing a charge was the increase in the costs for “securing the services of telecommunications operators”, Sme wrote.
On the other hand, the bank has recently introduced an app that enables clients to set up so-called push notifications. They run so that if a person installs the app and is connected to the internet, he/she will receive a notification after a transaction. The advantage of these applications is that clients can directly learn about the details after opening the notification, Tatra Banka explained.
As a result, people have better information about when and how they paid or that they drew their money from a cash machine. The app is free, Sme wrote.
Those who have not downloaded the application, and who use ordinary internetbanking and do not want to pay for SMS notifications, can have the notifications sent to their email. This service remains free.
Push notifications already offered
Imposing a fee for SMS notification is nothing new. Clients also pay for them at Slovenská Sporiteľna. The bank distinguishes when the payment is lower or higher than €20.
In the former case, SMS notifications are free only in the Personal Account Exclusive package and in others there is a charge of €0.50, while in the latter SMS notifications are free in all types of packages.
“We are not offering push notifications for now, but are intensively working on adding a functionality to mobile banking,” Slovenská Sporiteľňa’s spokesperson, Marta Cesnaková, told Sme, explaining that some clients still use ordinary mobile phones without mobile data. As a result, the replacement of SMS notifications with push notifications is not possible for now.
Push notifications are already offered by VÚB bank.
Their advantage is that they do not occupy any space on mobile phones, Sme wrote.
