The number of saving accounts with post office has increased in the past 3-4 months due to the new guidelines of different banks for maintaining minimum balance in saving accounts.
A total of 3065 savings accounts have been opened from the month of January 2017 and 976 savings accounts were open in the month of March which is the effect of increase in minimum balance of SBI savings accounts. In the month of February the savings accounts opened were 683. This is data of Bhopal GPO, TT Nagar and BHEl Head Office.
After the customers of savings bank accounts of SBI started receiving messages of maintaining minimum balance of Rs 5000 as monthly average balance most of the customers would look for other options with least minimum balance and post office is offering the best savings account with all the facilities of bank accept net banking which might start next year.
In the city after receiving the message when SBI bank was contacted it was informed that Rs 3000 is the monthly average balance which customer has to maintain and failing would attract penalty from Rs 50 to Rs 100 with taxes.
Deputy Superintendent of Post office Bhopal Sunita Singh told ‘The Pioneer’ that at the moment the increase in the number of saving accounts could be provided exactly as it would require comparison of data with the same period of last year but the increasing the limit of maximum limit by the largest national bank with the largest customer base would definitely witness an increase in the number of savings accounts with the post office.
In March, SBI decided to increase the minimum balance required for maintaining savings account from April 1 which has left the customer to opt out for some better option. Similarly, other banks are also following similar footprints.Post office savings account provides facility of maintaining Rs 50 balance and Rs 500 with cheque book facility. ATM card facility is also provided which could be used at any other bank’s ATM for five times in a month and there is no restriction on number of usage with post office ATM machines.