I seek your assistance in taking up the matter pertaining to unfair levy of quarterly minimum balance charges (AQB) of Rs.16, 500 by HDFC Bank over a period of six years!! I had written to their Chairman & MD Shri Puri and was replied in negative on 16th March. I understand that aggrieved party can approach the Banking Ombudsman appointed by Reserve Bank of India within one year i.e.by 15 March in this case.
I thought to seek your assistance in the matter a better option than going to the Banking Ombudsman considering the procedural hassle.
The facts of the case are as under:
Bank required either to maintain an average quarterly balance of Rs 5000/- in saving bank account or a fixed deposit of Rs 50000/-. In case either of the conditions is not met, charges Rs 750/- per quarter are applicable.
I had opened a SB a/c in 1998 with the erstwhile Times Bank, Noida which was later taken over by HDFC Bank. I was having a linked FD of more than Rs.84, 000 in September when I had issued a cheque of Rs.50, 000 which took the FD balance below Rs.50, 000 after exhausting the SB a/c balance. Since then there was no transaction in the account, barring charges debited from time to time for non maintenance of Minimum Average. These charges were being recovered on quarterly basis until December by transferring the required balance from the linked FD a/c to SB a/c resulting in reduction in the linked FD balance.
I was not getting bank statements and other communications from the bank (by snail mail) possibly due to change in address after my transfer from Noida to Mumbai. When I shifted back to Noida in October I got a letter advising levying of QAB charges for the period July-Sep 2008. After checking this with the branch, I came to know about the QAB requirement which possibly was stipulated by HDFC Bank after taking over Times Bank. This has resulted in a total debit of Rs.16, 500 (for 3 quarters @ Rs.500/qtr and 23 quarters @ Rs.750/qtr) due to reduction in the linked FD balance below Rs.50, 000 to about Rs.35, 000 since 2002.
I think levying of QAB charges in this case is unfair on the following grounds:
o Bank always had recourse to the linked FD for ensuring that QAB balance in SB a/c remains Rs.5, 000. This is in contrast to a normal FD wherein specific instruction from customer is required for premature withdrawal. This recourse to use linked FD funds was in fact used by bank to recover QAB charges.
o Linked FD balance was always more than Rs.30, 000 during the period despite levying of QAB charges. This is more than 6 times the stipulated minimum QAB of Rs.5, 000 in SB a/c.
o There was no customer transaction in SB a/c since 2002 and as per RBI guidelines a/c should have been treated as In-operative/ Dormant. Despite this, there were debits by the bank and even I was able to withdraw funds myself without re-activating the a/c status.
o Bank could have sent email to me about the a/c status (I find my email a/c recorded in bank records and regularly receive promotional emails).
o On advice of Bank staff (they said take all the money out and then nothing can be debited by the bank and a/c will be closed automatically) I had also withdrawn the money left in my a/c in January. Soon after this I got a communication from the Bank that QAB charges have been levied for Oct- Dec quarter and a sum of about Rs.3 (balance remaining in the a/c after withdrawal) has been debited. This suggests that Bank’s recovery of QAB charges is limited only to funds available in the a/c. Thus, the QAB charges were recovered from my SB a/c only because I had a linked FD to my SB a/c.
Request your opinion and necessary assistance in taking up the matter.
Sincerely
Rahul Agarwal
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