Leakage in your Savings Bank Account
Surveying her quarterly bank statement, Namita Narula found that her bank had deducted Rs 1,000 from her savings account without informing her. “The bank should have at least informed me before deducting the money. With shortage of funds, some of my cheques could have bounced,” recalls the Delhi-based media manager.
Narula is probably not differentiating between being uninformed and unaware. It quite likely that her bank informed her of the charges, but not explicitly enough. Banks are free to charge for services they render but must inform customers about various charges.
The least known
The most common misconception is that debit cards are free for life. This may be true for credit cards but not debit cards. “Customers are surprised when they are charged the annual fee,” says an HDFC Bank spokesperson. Most banks charge Rs 50-100 annually for debit cards. Others may charge from the second year of issue. Customers are usually informed of these charges when opening an account and updated regularly.
There’s a limit to the use of cheques too. Most private banks offer one cheque book of 25 leaves per quarter. For an extra cheque book, you have to shell out Rs 50 ( see table ). A ‘stop cheque’ request costs Rs 50-100. There’s a marked difference between the charges levied by private and public sector banks.
“Public-sector banks are a lot lenient and most of the service charges are posted on their websites,” says Sudhir Kumar Jain, general manager (retail) of Dena Bank . While private sector banks charge Rs 750- 1,200 for non-adherence, public-sector banks charge only Rs 100-225. “My public-sector bank usually tells me that I’ll be charged Rs 25 for the transaction. But in my private-sector bank, I’ll only know about the charge after I see my account statement,” complains Mumbai-based Parag Mishra.
How to reduce your charges
In some cases, net banking, ATMs or phone banking could help you save on your service charges. Banks, for instance, charge Rs 100 for a ‘duplicate’ account statement at a branch or customer care. Availing the same service through net banking, ATM or phone banking, however, will cost you as low as Rs 50, besides service tax and cess. The onus is on you
According to Mumbai-based investment consultant Ramesh Bhojwani, most customers don't go through documents when opening a bank account. Banks can't shy away from the responsibility either. “When minimum balance regulation was to be initiated, most customers did not receive any communication. It was only after a penalty of Rs 750 that customers realised something was wrong,” says Bhojwani.
Source: Economic Times
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