During the Coronavirus lockdown, various Indian banks had announced exemption from maintaining the minimum balance limit in one’s savings account. Since the offer was available till 30th June 2020, the original savings account minimum balance limit rule will become effective from tomorrow. Ignoring this may lead to monetary loss for many savings account holders. However, the State Bank of India (SBI) has made it clear in the first fortnight of March 2020 that there is no need to maintain a minimum balance limit in SBI Savings account.
So, SBI savings account holders need not worry about maintaining minimum account balance limit from tomorrow. But, those who don’t have their savings account in SBI, need to check the minimum balance limit rule and whether it will be applicable on them from 1st July, 2020. They can either check their respective banks’ websites and find out the minimum balance limit rule applicable from tomorrow or they can call the customer care number of their banks.
In a major initiative to bring customer delight and a hassle free banking experience, country’s largest lender SBI decided to waive off maintenance of Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for all Savings Bank Accounts in March 2020. This initiative as told by the bank was aimed at boosting Financial Inclusion in the country. The charges on maintaining AMB are now waived off on all 44.51 crore SBI savings bank accounts. Prior to that, SBI Savings Bank customers’ were required to maintain AMB of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 in Metro, Semi Urban and Rural areas respectively. Like any other bank, SBI also used to levy a penalty of Rs 5 to Rs 15 + taxes on non-maintenance of AMB.
So, those bank savings account holders who don’t have their account in SBI, should immediately check out about their bank’s AMB rule and avoid any kind of penalty being levied by their bank for not maintaining the average minimum balance.
