maintenance fee
Maintenance Fee is the small, regular charge your bank takes just for keeping your account open, whether or not you use it.
In plain English
Some accounts feel like a generator you only run when there is a blackout, you barely touch it, yet somehow it still needs fuel money every month. That is what a dormant savings account with a maintenance fee feels like, calmly sipping from a balance you forgot to check.
Now compare that to a current account you use every single day for business, paying suppliers, receiving customer transfers, moving money about. That account earns its fee, because the bank is doing real work behind the scenes for you.
A maintenance fee is what banks charge simply for keeping your account alive and running, separate from any transfer charge or card fee. It usually gets deducted monthly, in small amounts, sometimes ₦100, sometimes more, depending on the account type and the bank's own rules.
A trader in Onitsha with three different bank accounts might notice one account slowly bleeding money each month even though she stopped using it after the branch closed. In the United Kingdom, some current accounts avoid this fee entirely as long as a minimum amount is paid in monthly, which is why people there are so particular about which account receives their salary.
For someone abroad sending money home to family in Nigeria, it helps to know that the receiving account might be losing a little every month to fees, even before the money for school fees or rent gets touched. That small leak matters when every transfer already costs something to send.
Banks call this fee income, and it adds up nicely for them across millions of accounts, even when each individual charge looks harmless.
Adaeze has ₦850,000 sitting in a savings account she barely uses. Her bank charges a ₦500 monthly maintenance fee. Over one year, that is ₦6,000 gone, without her withdrawing a single naira.
Questions people ask
Can I avoid maintenance fees completely?
Some accounts waive the fee if you maintain a minimum balance or complete a set number of transactions monthly, so ask your bank what their specific threshold is.
Is a maintenance fee the same as a transfer charge?
No, a maintenance fee is charged just for keeping the account open, while transfer charges apply only when you actually move money out.
Why does my dormant account still get charged?
Banks still incur costs keeping any account active on their systems, so most will keep charging until the balance runs out or you close the account formally.
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