In the new financial year, State Bank of India brought in some new changes with respect to customer’s minimum balance maintenance and transaction charges.
It has been almost five years since country’s largest lender State Bank of India levied charges on not maintaining minimum balance in the accounts. From the beginning of this financial year that is on April 1, State Bank of India started charging penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts. It has also has revised charges on other services, including ATMs.
So according to the latest decisions, the customer in metro cities has to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 5,000. The customers in urban areas must maintain a minimum balance of Rs 3000, while the customers in semi-urban and rural areas will have to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000, respectively.
A penalty of up to Rs 100 plus service tax will be charged if the balance falls below 75% of the MAB of Rs 5,000. If the shortfall is 50% or less of the MAB, then the bank will charge Rs 50 plus service tax.
On the other side Savings account holders are allowed to deposit cash in their accounts three times a month free of charge and a charge of Rs 50 plus service charge would be levied on every transaction beyond that.
There are mixed opinions on the changes made by State Bank of India especially with respect to the maintenance of minimum balance. Analysts say that this move by SBI is not right especially in the time when other banks are offering zero balance accounts for the customers.
On the other side SBI revised ATM transaction charges.
Withdrawal of cash from ATMs will attract a charge of up to Rs 20 if the number of transactions exceeds three from different bank’s ATM in a month and Rs 10 for more than five withdrawals from SBI ATMs.
However, SBI will not levy any charge on withdrawals from its own ATMs if the balance exceeds Rs 25,000. In case of other banks’ ATM there will be no charge if the balance exceeds Rs 1 lakh.
SBI will charge Rs 15 for SMS alerts per quarter from debit card holders who maintain average quarterly balance of up to Rs 25,000 during the three months period. There will be no charge for UPI/ USSD transactions of up to Rs 1,000.
Five associate banks and Bharateeya Mahila Bank have emerged with SBI from April 1. So that means the customers of these banks have now become the customers of SBI and all the changes are applicable to those who had accounts in these merged associate banks.
