MUMBAI : State Bank of India has decided to hike the minimum charges for cash deposit at non-home branches by 400% to 50 rupees from 10 rupees in a bid to boost fee income and deter unnecessary transactions at branches, a senior bank official said. The new charges will become effective from Mar 8.
“The main aim is to deter many of our customers who tend to use the closest available branch for cash deposits instead of using the cash deposit machines or depositing at their home branch. Crowds tend to then happen at centrally located branches,” the official said.
Large crowds for such transactions often hurt customer service to the bank’s home branch customers, the official pointed out. State-owned banks traditionally charge lower fees on transactions. Private banks have managed to leverage their customer service ability to encourage customers to pay higher fees for transactions.
For its regular savings accounts, HDFC Bank charges no fee on cash withdrawal or fee for the first five transactions at a home or non-home branch in a month, but charges 100 rupees per transaction after that. While there is no additional charge for transactions of value of 49,999 rupees per day, beyond this limit, the bank charges a fee of 5 rupees per 1,000 rupees, plus taxes.
ICICI Bank employs the concept of base branch, which refers to branches within the same city and charges no fees for the first four transactions at these branches in a month, but charges flat 90 rupees
fee for all subsequent transactions. -Cogencis
