No charges for SMS service, non-maintenance of monthly average balance for all SBI saving account holders

New Delhi: Bringing relief for lakhs of customers, India’s largest lender State Bank of India has announced that now customers will not have to pay charges for SMS service and non-maintenance of monthly average balance.

“Good news for SBI Savings Account holders! Now you don't have to pay charges for SMS service and non-maintenance of monthly average balance,” SBI has tweeted.

Good news for SBI Savings Account holders! Now you don't have to pay charges for SMS service and non-maintenance of monthly average balance. #SavingsAccount #SMSCharges #MAB #SBI #StateBankOfIndia pic.twitter.com/v3IcqzcsUh — State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) August 18, 2020

SBI in response to its tweet by a user further said that the waiver of charges is all applicable for all accounts.

As per the previous list of revised charges (2018) of SBI, failure to maintain Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in accounts would attract penalty that varied in metropolitan and rural area. The charges and MAB would vary according to the location of bank. It is minimum in case of rural branches.

Savings Bank customers’ were required to maintain AMB of Rs 3000, Rs 2000 and Rs 1000 in Metro and Urban, Semi Urban and Rural areas respectively.  The bank used to levy a penalty of ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 15 plus taxes on non-maintenance of average monthly balance.

It may be recalled that in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and the announcement of the subsequent nationwide lockdown, the State Bank of India had waived off service charges for all ATM transactions on its own branch and  other bank ATMs.

“In view of the announcement made by Finance Minister on 24th March, SBI has decided to waive ATM charges for all ATM transactions made on SBI ATMs and other bank ATMs on account of exceeding the free number of transactions up to 30th June,”  SBI announcement had said.