Banks normally allow up to five transactions a month in their own ATMs. Every savings bank account requires you to maintain a certain balance
For almost every service that a bank offers, the banks charge. Charges ranging from exceeding the number of transactions in bank's own ATMs to minimum balance default charges to paying for your cheque book, different banks have different norms for charging their customers. There are a lot of levies that each bank charges their customers for the facilities offered. Most of these charges are as per the RBI guidelines.
Here is the list of some of the top banks that charge their customers:
State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank & others...
Here are some of the charges levied by the aforementioned top banks to the customers:
Banks restrict the number of cash transactions in a savings account to three to five per month and levy charges if you exceed a specified number or amount. Axis Bank allows four free transactions or cash withdrawals of up to Rs 2 lakh in a month. Once the limit is breached, the bank levy charges. Since May 1, for every Rs 1,000 withdrawn, you will now have to pay Rs 10 or Rs 150, whichever is higher, for cash withdrawals from the savings account.
Banks normally allow up to five transactions a month in their own ATMs, and three transactions at other banks' ATMs, free of charges. For example, SBI and ICICI Bank allow its regular savings bank account holders eight free transactions in metros. This includes five transactions from their own ATMs and three transactions from any other bank's ATM. If you exceed these limits, you may end up paying around Rs 20 to Rs 50 per withdrawal. The charges vary from bank to bank.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also stated that banks can't charge customers for failed transactions. Banks charge a fee for a failed ATM transaction owing to insufficient balance in your account. SBI charges a fee of Rs 20 plus GST for transaction decline due to insufficient balance. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Yes Bank charge Rs 25 per transaction.
Every savings bank account requires you to maintain a certain balance. If your balance falls below this limit, your bank charges you.
For example, if you have an account with ICICI Bank, it mandates a minimum balance (MAB) of Rs 10,000 in metro and urban branches and Rs 5,000 in savings accounts for semi-urban and rural branches. If the average minimum balance is not maintained, the bank will levy a penalty of Rs 100 + 5% of the shortfall in the required MAB in the metro, urban, semi-urban, and rural locations. Amid the COVID pandemic, in March 2020, SBI did away with charging savings bank account customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance and it has also waived SMS charges. Earlier, SBI savings bank customers had to maintain an average monthly balance of Rs 3000, Rs 2000, and Rs 1000 in metro, semi-urban and rural areas. The bank used to levy a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 plus taxes on the non-maintenance of the average monthly balance.
If you misplace your card, your bank will charge you a fee of Rs 50-500 to replace it. And if you forget your ATM PIN, you might also be charged for each time you reset it.
RBI does not allow banks to charge more than Rs 150 per cheque for speed clearing of cheques worth over Rs 1 lakh, there are no charges for values up to Rs 1 lakh. You need to remember that you will also have to pay a fee of Rs 100-150 if your cheque bounces.
Banks can also charge you for issuing documents. For example, SBI charges Rs 150 for signature verification. Banks offer an annual account statement once in a financial year. If you request a duplicate account statement, it may cost you between Rs 50 to Rs 100. ICICI Bank charges Rs 100 per duplicate statement if you apply at a branch.
SMS alerts are sent by the banks to keep you updated about transactions happening from your accounts. This is to help identify cases of fraud immediately. Banks charges for SMS alerts. For example, Axis Bank has also recalibrated its SMS charges. Instead of charging a flat fee of Rs 5 every month, it will now charge 25 paise for every SMS alert, subject to a maximum of Rs 25 per month, effective July 1 (except for one-time passwords and promotional messages) it sends you.
While NEFT and RTGS have been made free for all Indian banks for their customers, IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) transactions are still chargeable. The charge depends largely on the amount being transferred. It's usually in the range of Rs 1 to Rs 25.