Domiciliary account charges in Nigeria (Explained)

Are you looking for domiciliary account charges in Nigeria, this post will guide you through because it is very necessary to know the bank charges before opening a domiciliary account with any bank.

Talking about charges on domiciliary account, it mostly comes with cash withdrawal and money transfer.

Some banks will charge you for maintenance fee, but mostly it comes to having a dollar, Euro or Pounds debit card.

I tried to get some banks charges on domiciliary account, and some used their charges, while some claim that there’s no charges.

However, you can’t tell until you opened a domiciliary account with them.

So for now, I only have domiciliary account charges in Nigeria for gtbank, access bank and zenith bank based on my experience.

Domiciliary account charges in nigeria

Charges on domiciliary account ranges from 0.05% to 0.5% on withdrawals and transfer, though depending on the bank itself. 

For the fact that I stated the charges ranges from 0.05% to 0.5% doesn’t necessarily mean it applies to all banks in Nigeria, but rather a few banks i have come across.

Please kindly note that charges on domiciliary account are very essential and you should make inquiries about it before proceeding with the domiciliary account opening.

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Let’s start with gtbank.

Gtbank

Talking about domiciliary account charges in Nigeria, gtbank has one of the high cost charges in a domiciliary account as long as withdrawal and transfer is involved but more especially on transfers.

The bigger the amount you are withdrawing from the bank, the higher the charges will be and same goes to domiciliary account money transfer.

It’s such a shame that the bank do charge a high amount on gtbank to gtbank domiciliary account transfer.

Whereas, you can’t transfer money from your gtbank account to another bank in Nigeria, that is not possible.

From my observation and calculations, I noticed that the Gtbank do charge from 0.05% on cash withdrawal which is quite low.

However, it is very much different on transfers.

Gtbank charge 0.5% on every transfers you made on your gtbank domiciliary account.

If you ask me, it is quite high especially now the best means of withdrawal is no longer cash withdrawal but rather straight transfer due to scarcity of dollars in the bank.

If you are transferring up to $10,000 from your gtbank domiciliary account, be rest assured that you will spend $50 only on transfers.

That is $10,000 x 0.5 ÷ 100 = $50

Let me give you examples of domiciliary account charges in Nigeria for Guaranty Trust Bank.

For Example. 

For cash withdrawals

You will multiply the amount you want to withdraw by 0.05% divide by 100.

For example, $1000 x 0.05 ÷ 100 = $0.5

As of the time of writing this post, if you are withdrawing $500 from your gtbank domiciliary account, the bank will charge you the sum $0.25 per each $500 withdrawal you made on your Dom account.

There are two charges on gtbank domiciliary account withdrawal, they are Commission on Fx withdrawal and Vat on Fx withdrawal commission.

For every $500 withdrawal will attract $0.25 for Commission on Fx withdrawal, and $0.02 for Vat on Fx withdrawal commission respectively.

For every $400 withdrawal will attract $0.20 for Commission on Fx withdrawal, and $0.02 for Vat on Fx withdrawal commission respectively.

For every $250 withdrawal will attract $0.13 for Commission on Fx withdrawal, and $0.01 for Vat on Fx withdrawal commission respectively.

For every $1000 withdrawal will attract $0.50 for Commission on Fx withdrawal, and $0.02 for Vat on Fx withdrawal commission respectively.

For every $600 withdrawal will attract $0.30 for Commission on Fx withdrawal, and $0.02 for Vat on Fx withdrawal commission respectively.

For every $100 withdrawal will attract $0.05 for Commission on Fx withdrawal, and $0.01 for Vat on Fx withdrawal commission respectively.

These are for withdrawals, moving onto gtbank Dom account transfer charges.

The percentage is quite high especially if you are transferring a large sum amount of money from your domiciliary account.

Quite annoying and painful.

This is why I don’t fancy using gtbank domiciliary account especially now that cash withdrawal is difficult as there no funds or enough funds, everything goes down to transfer.

Below are some examples of the amount you will be charged on gtbank domiciliary account.

For example.

For every $2500 transfer will now attract $12.50 for Commission on transfer, and $0.94 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $700 transfer will now attract $3.50 for Commission on transfer, and $0.26 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $800 transfer will now attract $4.00 for Commission on transfer, and $0.30 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $2000 transfer will now attract $10.00 for Commission on transfer, and $0.75 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $1000 transfer will now attract $5.00 for Commission on transfer, and $0.40 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $1500 transfer will now attract $7.50 for Commission on transfer, and $0.56 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $3500 transfer will now attract $17.50 for Commission on transfer, and $1.31 for Vat on transfer respectively.

For every $5000 transfer will now attract $25 for Commission on transfer, and $1.88 for Vat on transfer respectively.

These charges are outrageous for me especially if you decide to see their exchange rate in naira.

For example, if you want to transfer $5000 from your gtbank Dom account to another gtbank Dom account, the bank will charge you a whopping $25 and if you check the exchange rate using the black rate, you will find yourself spending N18,000 to N25,000 only on transfer charges.

Now imagine if you are to transfer $10,000 from a gtbank Dom account.

This attracts a $50 transfer charges and which is almost N40,000 to N50,000 on transfer charges using the black market exchange rate.

Access Bank

Access Bank is one of the best banks I love so much when it comes to opening a domiciliary account in Nigeria.

The reason being that there’s no transfer charges.

You heard me right.

Access Bank don’t charge a fee on transfers as long as domiciliary account is involved. 

Okay, that was before.

Right now, access bank charge 0.05% on cash withdrawal for domiciliary account. I noticed this changes in the month of October 2023.

Talking about charges on domiciliary account, access bank has zero charges and I was pretty much surprised to see that, whereas gtbank charges a lot on transfers.

But that has changed since October 2023 as the bank now has charges for their domiciliary account.

However, if you’re making a transfer to another access bank account, then the bank do charge 0.50% on any transfer made.

Quite high.

This is why transfer is the best option you have, all you need to do is to look for a black market seller that has access bank domiciliary account.

They are plenty and not scarce.

Let’s do the calculations.

You have to multiply the amount you to withdraw by 0.5 divide by 100.

Like, $1000 x 0.5 ÷ 100 = $5

For Examples.

For every $500 transfer will now attract $2.5 for Commission on transfer.

For every $1000 transfer will now attract $5 for Commission on transfer.

For every $1500 transfer will now attract $7.5 for Commission on transfer.

For every $2000 transfer will now attract $10 for Commission on transfer.

For every $2500 transfer will now attract $12.5 for Commission on transfer.

For every $3500 transfer will now attract $17.5 for Commission on transfer.

For every $5000 transfer will now attract $25 for Commission on transfer.

For every $10,000 transfer will now attract $50 for Commission on transfer.

And so on.

Zenith bank

So far I’m yet to get the exact charges on zenith bank domiciliary account, I won’t hesitate to update it when I’m done with my findings.

This isn’t just for zenith bank but rather for other banks in Nigeria.

Is domiciliary account free?

Domiciliary is free in some banks, while others do require a minimum opening balance.

For example, you can open a gtbank and zenith bank domiciliary account without any money.

That is, zero account opening and this also applies to the likes of uba and fcmb.

But some of them requires a reference form.

The likes of uba do require that you upgrade your account in order to exceed the $2000 monthly limit.

To upgrade your account requires a minimum opening balance of $100, €100 or £100 respectively.

Gtbank has a zero account opening but it requires a reference form which can be quite difficult especially to get an account holder with a gtbank current account.

Can I withdraw everything in my domiciliary account?

The answer is yes but only if your bank don’t have a minimum operating balance. 

Here, minimum operating balance is the amount that you need to have in your bank account in order for it to stay active and not being closed by the bank.

Withdrawing the entire money in your account simply means closing your bank account.

Talking about domiciliary account, some banks won’t allow you to withdraw all the money in your domiciliary account.

For example, First bank Nigeria.

First bank do require a minimum operating balance of $100, €100, £50, CFA10,000.00 respectively.

Before opening a domiciliary account, this is very compulsory, asking the bank if they have a minimum operating balance or not.

The likes of gtbank, zenith bank, access bank don’t have a minimum operating balance.

And with this I come to the conclusion of the question of the day, domiciliary account charges in Nigeria. I’m open to your comments and suggestions.