State bank of India hiked charges for not maintaining minimum balance and for services like cheque book and lockers. Bank also lowered lending rates.
The higher charges will be applicable to the account holders of five associate lenders and Bharatiya Mahila Bank that were merged to SBI this month.
SBI cut its base rate by 15 basis points to 9.10% with effect from April 1 2017 from 9.25%.
The marginal cost-based lending rate will remain unchanged. The six month MCLR rate is at 7.95% while the three year rate stands at 8.15%.
SBI's decision to raise charges on various services is likely to be followed by other banks,hitting customers across the country.
These raise in charges also will applocable to customers of associates and Bharatiya Mahila Bak.With the merger , the SBI customer base has increased to 37 crore.
The montly minimum balance requirement has been increased to as high as Rs 5000 for branches in six metros. Savings bank account holders of SBI have to maintain the monthly balance or else they want to pay a penalty charge ranging from Rs 20 to Rs 100 according to SBI website.
Till March 31 the monthly minimum balance for a savings account was Rs 500. without facility of cheque book and Rs 1000 with cheque book across the country.
SBI decided to fix seperate MAB's for metro, urban, semi urban, rural areas from the beginning of next financial year.
MAB for metro branches increased to Rs 5,000 and penalty for non-maintenance of minimum balance will be between Rs 50 and Rs 100. For urban and semi-urban branches, the MAB has been fixed at Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,000 respectively.
In case of rural branches, the minimum balance has been fixed at Rs 1,000. Breach of MAB will attract a penalty ranging between Rs 20 and Rs 50.
However, these new rates effective from April 1 are not applicable on Surabhi, Basic Savings Bank and PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts.
Besides, the bank has increased locker rent and curtailed number of free locker usage in a year. After usage 12 times, the customer has to pay Rs 100 plus service tax applicable for visiting his or her locker.
As far as cheque books are concerned, for a current account holder, the first 50 cheques free in a financial year; thereafter, it will cost Rs 3 per leaf.
So 25-leaf Cheque Book now costs Rs 75 plus service tax and 50-leaf Cheque Book cost is Rs 150 excluding service tax.SBI will now charge Rs 20 for opening fee including enrolment for savings account among other various charges that the bank has raised.
If one maintain 25,000 in your SBI savings account, then customer can use ATM unlimited number of time. However, the charges of ATM usage over allowed 5 times will attract charges as prescribed by RBI.
