Simplified Laws Guide to Taxation and Legal Concern This article is about unknown or lesser known or hidden charges on banking transactions. I will tell how a new bank account gets opened. You identify a banker and if that happens to be a new generation bank, then an executive will come to your home or to office. He will collect address proof, ID proof and your photos. He will ask you to sign on 10 different places. If you open account in a nationalized bank, then you will stand for 10 minutes in a branch, find a corner for a table to fill the application form, submit with form with other documents at the counter. The concerned (without raising his head) will murmur something, which you either won’t hear or can’t understand.
Somehow, you at an account opened. Then you will transact mostly through debit card or through net bank. You rarely visit the branch and occasionally you will see the account statement.
But now, after reading this article, kindly check you bank statement for the last one year and see how much money was debited to your bank account by the banker. The most common charges debited to your bank account are –
Issue of cheque book – the first book comes free. Subsequently, the fee per cheque book may vary from Rs.50/- or Rs.3 per leaf
Cheque return charges due to insufficient funds – Rs.350/- for the first cheque and for subsequent returns, the charges goes upto Rs.750/- per return. The charges are applicable for your cheque bouncing or the return of cheques deposited by you (your clients cheque bouncing) in your account. Similarly, ECS returns are also chargeable.
Balance Certificate – for the current year free. For the previous years, it is around Rs.250 per certificate.
Photo attestation – Rs.100 per transaction
Address confirmation – Rs.100 per transaction
Stop Payment – there is a charge for it! It ranges from Rs.50 to Rs.100 per stop!
Power of Attorney (POA) handling charges – if you operate your account through a POA, then you have to pay Rs.600/-
Collection charges – Apart from the above, they will charge fees on collection of outstation cheque, issue of Pay Orders or Demand drafts
Quarterly Average Balance (QAB) or Average Monthly Balance – The banks offer you a special account where certain charges such as DD charges, cheque book charges are waived provided you maintain a minimum Quarterly Average Balance. By chance, if you fail to maintain QAB, then the banker will levy around Rs.500 per quarter as charges.
Yes. This is why I narrated how an account gets opened in the bank. At the time of opening the account, neither the banker will tell nor do we ask about various features. For example, in case of Savings Bank account, there are schemes like Zero balance account, No frill account, minimum balance of Rs.5000 and minimum balance of 25000. If you opt for Rs.25000 QAB account, issue of DD, issue of cheque books etc won’t attract any charges. However, if you fail to maintain minimum balance, then the banker quietly will levy charges for Non Maintenance of minimum balance. If you fail to check passbook, one day you will notice a series of debits in your bank account.
Beware of these charges. Next time when you happen to check your bank statement, please observe the number of charges levied by the bankers! Some of the charges can be reversed provided you bargain with the branch manager! check about the features of your account and manage the transactions accordingly.
