SBI’s new ATM, minimum balance charges effective from April 1

State Bank of India (SBI)

State Bank of India’s existing and new customers from the merger with associate banks will now have to pay more charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in accounts, transactions above the capped limit on ATMs and other services.

This is likely to affect over 31 crore savings deposit account holders including pensioners and students.

After a gap of five years, SBI, which is also the country's biggest bank and from today among the top 50 banks globally, will be charging on non-maintenance of minimum balance on savings and current account.

The new charges are applicable even if your account is in Bharatiya Mahila Bank and any of the five associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH). This is because all these banks are getting merged with the SBI effective Saturday.

Here some FAQs about the new charges:

How much minimum balance should I have?

For metro cities, the minimum balance is Rs 5,000.

In urban, semi-urban and rural areas, the charges will be Rs 3,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000, respectively.

What if I do not have the above balance?

As per the list of revised charges of SBI, failure to maintain Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in accounts will attract penalty of up to Rs 100 plus service tax.

In metro cities, there will be a charge of Rs 100 plus service tax, if the balance falls below 75 per cent of the MAB of Rs 5,000. If the shortfall is 50 per cent or less of the MAB, then the bank will charge Rs 50 plus service tax.

For rural areas, the penalty ranges from Rs 20-50 plus service tax, the bank notification said.

ATM withdrawal limit

Customers of top banks including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are allowed five free transactions at their own bank ATM and three free transactions at other bank ATMs.

Cash withdrawal beyond the five limit at ATMs of your own bank will attract a fee of up to Rs 10 and at any other bank ATMs, more than three transactions will be charged Rs 20.

However, SBI will not levy any charge on withdrawals from its own ATMs if the balance exceeds Rs 25,000. In case of other banks' ATMs there will be no charge if the balance exceeds Rs 1 lakh.

Cash deposit charges

Savings account holders will be allowed to deposit cash in their accounts free of cost three times a month. The fourth and above cash deposit transactions will be charged Rs 50 plus service charge.

On SMS alerts

SBI will charge Rs 15 for SMS alerts per quarter from debit card holders who maintain average quarterly balance of up to Rs 25,000 during the three months period.

There will be no charge for UPI/USSD transactions of up to Rs 1,000.