Banks to charge customers on non-maintenance of minimum average balance

Top banks across India will now levy charges on non-maintenance of average monthly balance (AMB) in regular savings bank accounts.

According to report in NDTV, banks have now mandated savings bank account users to maintain a certain amount of money in their account, failing to do which may invite certain penalty charges from the particular bank institution.

The report lists State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Axis Bank as those institutions that have fixed their AMB depending on the location of the customer’s account in urban, semi-urban and rural areas.

Among them, the SBI, which is one of India largest banking sector, requires customers with accounts in metro and urban branches to maintain a minimum average balance of Rs 3000 every month. While customers in semi-urban and rural branches will have to maintain an average balance of Rs 2000 and 1000 respectively.

Then HDFC Bank requires customers with accounts in metro and urban branches to maintain a monthly average balance of Rs 10000, while in semi-urban and rural areas the amount is Rs 5000 and 2000 respectively.

ICICI Bank requires customers to maintain Rs 10000 as minimum average balance in urban and metro branches and Rs 5000 and Rs 2000 in semi-urban and rural areas respectively.

Similarly, Punjab National Bank requires savings account holders in metro and urban branches to maintain a minimum average balance of Rs 2000. The required amount in semi-urban and rural branches is Rs 2000 and 1000 respectively.

In Axis Bank, the minimum amount required is Rs 10000 in all branches.

The amount levied on not maintaining the minimum required balance varies from bank to bank and from location to location.

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