SBI Will Charge You For Low Balance In Account; Know About The Other Changes

A few days ago, private banks like Axis Bank, HDFC and ICICI announced charges on the cash transactions. Now the State Bank of India (SBI) has also come up with revised plans after a gap of five years.

From April 1, SBI will be charging a penalty on non-maintenance of minimum balance on accounts. The fees will also be revised on ATM transactions and other services.

The bank had suspended levying charges on breach of minimum balance requirements in 2012. With the Reserve Bank permit, SBI has decided to levy charges for breaching the minimum balance limit.

The bank will allow savings bank account holders to deposit cash only three times a month and beyond that Rs 50 plus service tax will be charged on every transaction. The current account holders can be levied charges up to Rs 20,000.

Highlights of the new rules

• The failure to maintain Monthly Average Balance (MAb) in accounts will call for a penalty between Rs 50 to Rs 100 plus service tax per month.

• In metropolitan cities, If the amount is below 75% of the Monthly Average Balance (MAB), the charges levied will be Rs 100 plus service tax. If the amount is 50 percent or less of the MAB, then the fees levied will be Rs 50 plus service tax. These charges differ in case of rural branches.

• The initial three ATM transactions in the month will not call for any penalty. If beyond that, the transactions done from other bank’s ATM will call a charge of Rs 20.

• SBI customers can do transactions from ATM charge free for five transactions and after that Rs 10 will be levied for more than five withdrawals. If the number of transactions from ATMs of other banks exceeds three, it will attract a charge of up to Rs 20.

• If the amount of withdrawal from ATM exceeds Rs 25,000, then no charges will be levied on such transaction.

• Rs 15 will be charged for SMS facility for alerts per quarter from Debit Card Holders who maintain the average quarterly balance of Rs 25,000 in three months period.

• For Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), there will be no charge up to Rs 1000.

Further details are:

The Monthly Average Balance of Rs 5000 in a branch in Metropolitan City then:

• Shortfall <=50% = Rs 50/- + Service Tax.
• Shortfall >=50-75% = Rs 75/- + Service Tax.
• Shortfall > 75% = Rs 100/- + Service Tax

The Monthly Average Balance of Rs 3000 in a branch in the Urban area then:

• Shortfall <=50% = Rs 40/- + Service Tax
• Shortfall >=50-75% = Rs 60/- + Service Tax.
• Shortfall > 75% = Rs 80/- + Service Tax

The Monthly Average Balance of Rs 2000 in a branch in the Semi- Urban area then:

• Shortfall <=50% = Rs 25/- + Service Tax
• Shortfall >=50-75% = Rs 50/- + Service Tax.
• Shortfall > 75% = Rs 75/- + Service Tax.

The Monthly Average Balance of Rs 2000 in a branch in the Rural area then:

• Shortfall <=50% = Rs 20/- + Service Tax
• Shortfall >=50-75% = Rs 30/- + Service Tax.
• Shortfall > 75% = Rs 50/- + Service Tax

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