If you don’t want to pay monthly rent to your Bank for depositing your money make sure that you maintain the minimum balance of money as per the official rule of your Bank. However, one can get trapped in this rule if the Minimum Balance is increased by the Bank. For example if your Bank asks you to keep minimum balance of Rs. 10000 but after some time raises it to Rs. 25000 and you maintained your balance according to the earlier rule. Most likely your bank will deduct monthly charges from your bank account. In fact, recently there were many clients of Citi Bank who suffered the same fate. Now the question is whether RBI has got any official rule regarding the Minimum Balance requirements of any Bank. The harsh fact is that there is no such rule. However, there is one rule of RBI according to which Banks must clearly communicate to their clients regarding the rules of minimum balance. Not only that according to the RBI rule Bank’s can raise their Minimum Balance requirement only after communicating to their clients regarding the changes in Bank rules. And in no case Banks can fine the clients without informing them about the changed rules.
It would be really tough to chart out clear cut course of action against a Bank if you have been charged for not maintaining the minimum Balance in your account just because you were not informed by your Bank regardin the raised minimum balance requirement. In my opinion it would be better for such kind of Bank customers to raise their complains with RBI and consumer forum. In fact, for quick action it would be better to contact through phone before sending the written complain.
