With a revision in ATM withdrawal and cheque leaf charges enforceable starting July 1, account holders of various private banks like Axis and IDBI bank, along with public sector banks like Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Syndicate Bank and SBI, one of India’s largest lenders will be impacted. Check out all the changes here:
As Syndicate and Canara bank merge, the customers of Syndicate bank will be given new IFSC codes for functioning effectively today. All IFSC codes starting with SYNB will be deactivated starting today. For the uninitiated, the IFSC (Indian Financial System Code) is a unique, 11 digit alpha-numeric code that identifies a bank branch for online fund transfers. The first four characters are representative of the bank name, the fifth character is zero, and the remaining digits signify the branch.
Customers will be required to use new cheque books provided by Union Bank from 1st July, which amalgamated Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank on 1st April 2020 under the mega-merger of public sector banks undertaken by the Finance Ministry last year. All cheque books issued by both of these banks will no longer be functional.
IDBI Bank has revised its cheque leaf charges. Earlier, the bank offered 50 free leaves per quarter and levied Rs 3 per leaf post the limit. Now, the customers will have a ceiling of 20 free leaves per year, with a charge of Rs 5 per leaf post the stipulated limit. However, it is noteworthy that the IDBI “Sabka Savings Account” does not fall under this change.
In addition to increasing cash withdrawal charges from ATMs beyond the free limit of 5 transactions, Axis Bank has also raised the minimum balance threshold for savings accounts. Earlier, the withdrawal charges stood at Rs 5/1,000 or Rs 150, whichever was higher. Now the effective charges beyond the free limit will be Rs 10/1,000 or Rs 150, whichever is higher.
The minimum balance requirement for Easy Savings Scheme, in metro locations particularly, has been raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. The bank also hiked its SMS charges, with the SMS alert free effective from today standing at 25 paise per SMS, with a maximum limit of Rs 25/month. This was earlier set at Rs 5/month for value-added service alerts. However, OTP and promotional messages sent by the bank will not count under these charges.
The country’s biggest lender SBI (State Bank of India) also introduced a change in charges levied. Beyond the stipulated 4 free transactions, the bank will levy a charge of Rs 15 plus GST per cash withdrawal from ATMs (both SBI and Non-SBI) or its branches.
Additionally, SBI will supply 10 free cheque leaves per financial year to its BSBD (Basic Savings Bank Deposits) or Zero Balance account holders. Barring senior citizens, the charges that will be levied on cheque leaves thereon would be as follows:
A 10 leaf checkbook will cost Rs 40 plus GST charges, while a 25 leaf cheque book will be charged at Rs 75 plus GST. If you wish to apply for an emergency checkbook, you will have to pay Rs 50+ GST for 10 leaves. However, there will be no charges on non-financial and transfer transactions by BSBD account holders, both through the bank branch and its alternate channels.
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