Do you hold a savings account in the bank? Probably ‘the answer is yes!! But are you aware of the charges you are paying for having a savings account in a bank?
Usually, we open a savings account to gain some interest in our money. And this interest can be different as per public or private sector banks.
The bank offers interest on your balance maintained in the savings account. But if you do not maintain a minimum balance, the bank charges you a fine.
Some people know about it and some don’t.
In this post, I’m going to share 10 hidden charges of the savings account you are paying.
Every Public and Private bank offers a savings account to the customer and every customer has to pay almost 10 hidden charges in a savings account.
10 Hidden Charges In Savings Account You Are Paying
Sometimes few people with a bit of knowledge about finance can be aware of these charges. But most of the account holders are not.
Banks generally call them savings account service charges or penalties. A few charges are quite high in Private banks. This can be as high as 1000/- INR each time.
Hopefully, this list can help you to identify the charges you are paying unintentionally to the banks.
List of bank Charges In Savings Account:-
Non-Maintenance of AMB
Cash/Cheque Pick Up
Debit Card Annual Fee
Bank Statements fee
ATM Use Charges
Cheque Bounce Penalty
Extra Cheque Book Charges
Closing Bank Account
International Use Of Debit Card
NEFT Services
Returns Of Any Documents
Read:- India’s First Digital Savings Account.
Non-Maintenance Of AMB –
This is the penalty amount you have to pay if your account minimum balance goes down to the monthly average.
As we said earlier bank charges you a penalty if you don’t maintain your savings account.
The condition of the Average Monthly Balance or AMB can be varied as per public or private sector banks.
The private bank asks to maintain an average monthly balance, while a few government banks ask for a Quarter balance.
Generally, this amount can be between 150/ INR to 750/- INR.
Cash/Cheque Pick Up Fee
Every time when you ask a bank for an executive visit to pick up the cheque or cash from your premises bank charges a fee.
This fee also depends on the amount of the cheque/cash and the distance of your location from a nearby bank branch.
The pickup charges can be between 100/ INR to 1000/- INR.
Read- High-Interest Savings Account for Women In India.
Debit Card Annual Fee
However, a few banks offer Free debit cards with general savings accounts. While others will ask you to pay an annual fee.
Free debit cards will not give you the benefit of cashback, rewards, EMI, etc, and these cards are only bound to use domestically.
So if you want to avail of all of the benefits you need to upgrade your card to an international debit card. And will have to pay annual charges between 299/- to 799/-.
Bank Statements Fee
Generally, You can see your monthly statement through your net banking without any charges. But what if you required a print from the bank?
In most cases when we require our printed bank statement banks charge a fee for that.
A customer has to pay 35/- INR to 75/- INR each time he/she asks for a printed statement. The amount will be debited from your savings account automatically.
ATM Use Charges
Every customer has a limited number of free access to bank ATMs for cash withdrawals.
After the updated Government and RBI regulations in urban areas, customers have 3 free access from other bank ATMs and 5 access from the same bank ATM every month.
You can avail of this facility 5 times if you use the same bank ATM where you have your savings account.
Some special privileges Savings Account gives you an option of up to 10 free withdrawals from any bank ATM or multiple withdrawals from the same bank ATM.
However, these accounts required a high amount of deposit for maintaining AMB.
Every time after the free access you have to pay 20/- to 25/- INR as an ATM transaction fee.
Cheque Bounce Penalty
Must check your account balance before issuing any cheque to someone. Issuing a cheque without sufficient money can cause you some penalties.
The cheque bounce penalty can be between 150/- to 350/- or beyond as per the issued amount.
A person depositing the cheque in his/her account will also have to pay a penalty of 50/- to 100/- INR.
Issuing a cheque without sufficient balance is a punishable crime and the receiver can file a police complaint against the cheque issuer.
Extra Cheque Book Charges
Most bank offers a free chequebook for the quarter with 20-25 leaves. If you require an additional booklet you need to pay a fee for this.
These additional booklet charges can be between 50 to 100/- INR. In the case of a privileged savings account, additional chequebook charges can be waived by the bank.
International Use Of Debit Card Charges
Banks offer debit cards for domestic use. You can use your debit card for online/offline purchases without any additional charges.
But if you are using your debit card Internationally or for any international payments you will have to pay some additional fee for that.
Currency conversion charges can be between 2.5% to 3.5% and 100/- to 300/- INR for use of debit cards.
NEFT/ RTGS/ IMPS Service Charges
However, these services are free if you use them from your own net banking account.
But if you are using these services in any bank branch services charges will be between 2.25/- to 25/- INR will be there.
Returns / Re-issuing Of Any Documents Charges
The bank keeps the data of every customer and if the customer asks for any document bank charges a fee.
The same if you don’t receive those documents and again ask for a resend bank will again charge some fee for that.
Closing Bank Account Charges
Opening a savings account is not a big deal. A person with the required documents and a sum of a minimum of 1000/- INR can open a savings account.
But for the regular benefit of interest on our savings, it’s mandated to maintain this account.
If you are not able to maintain your account you can close it anytime. But closing your account before the minimum period will cause you some penalty.
Most banks ask to run a savings account at least 1 year before you close it. And prematurity closing charges can be between 150/- to 250/- INR.
The charges mentioned above can be varied as per bank and type of savings account. Must check all charges and benefits before choosing an account.
Operating an account without proper knowledge can give you a loss of thousands of rupees. If you are already a bank account holder, you can check these charges on your bank website.
OMG… this is gross. We never pay attention to this. But banks are not leaving a single opportunity to cut money from our account.