Here is a look at the revised charges.
SMS alerts
According to the Axis Bank website, value-added SMS fee is currently charged at Rs 5 per month (levied quarterly at Rs 15 per quarter) on subscription basis for certain value-added services (VAS) alert(s). This will continue till June 30, 2021. Effective July 1, 2021, SMS alert fee will be applied based on actual usage/SMS sent to the customer at 25 paise per SMS with a maximum cap of Rs 25 per month. However, promotional SMS sent from the bank and OTP alerts are excluded from charges.
According to the bank’s website, these accounts are excluded: Burgundy, Burgundy Private, Priority, NRI, Trust & Government Accounts, Defense Salary Accounts, Staff Accounts, Small & Basic Accounts, Pension Accounts & Select Salary relationships.
What the RBI says about SMS alert charges
The Reserve Bank of India has told banks to send SMS alerts for every transaction as means to fight frauds, the regulator also directed banks to levy charges on actual usage basis. RBI said charges on actual usage basis would promote reasonableness in customer dealings.
“Considering the technology available with banks and the telecom service providers, it should be possible for banks to charge customers based on actual usage of SMS alerts. Accordingly, with a view to ensuring reasonableness and equity in the charges levied by banks for sending SMS alerts to customers, banks are advised to leverage the technology available with them and the telecom service providers to ensure that such charges are levied on all customers on actual usage basis,” the RBI stated in a notification issued in 2013.
You can read the notification here
RBI had directed banks to send mandatory SMS alerts for transactions through debit card, for ATM cash withdrawals, NEFT and RTGS transactions once funds are credited in the beneficiary account; and these are non-chargeable. Alerts for all other transactions are chargeable under RBI rules.
A 2018
Economic Times new report stated that a Banking Codes and Standards Board of India study shows that 19 out of 48 banks levy a fixed quarterly charge of Rs 15 while customers actually pay Rs 17.7 including taxes.
Other revised Axis Bank charges
Cash withdrawal charges: Currently, cash withdrawals above the free limit is being charged at Rs 5 per Rs 1,000 or Rs 150, whichever is higher. With effect from May 1, 2021, cash withdrawals above the free limit is being charged at Rs 10 per Rs 1,000 or Rs 150, whichever is higher.
Revision in average balance requirement and fess on non-maintenance of balance: The average balance requirement threshold for Easy Savings schemes at metro locations is revised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. This is with effect from May 1, 2021.
The balance requirement criteria for existing Prime variant (Digital Prime, Savings Domestic and Non resident Prime and Liberty schemes) is revised to Rs 25,000 Average Monthly Balance (AMB) or Rs 1 lakh term deposit.
The bank has also reduced the minimum fee levied on non-maintenance of balance. “With a view of safeguarding the interest of customers who may fall short of balance requirement threshold by a small margin, we have reduced our minimum fee on non-maintenance of balance from INR 150/- to INR 50/- for all locations,” the bank’s website stated.
Fees on dormant accounts
Axis Bank will levy a fee on dormant salary accounts. “Salary accounts which are more than 6-months-old and do not receive any credit (by any credit mode via cash, transfer, clearing, digital, etc.) in a calendar month will be levied a fee of INR 100 per month,” the bank’s website stated.
Further, savings accounts in which there have been no transactions for a continuous period of 17 months will attract a one-time fee of Rs 100 in the 18th month.
Service charges that have been reduced
The fees levied on services like stop payment of cheque fee, address confirmation fee, photo attestation fee, signature verification fee and few others will be lowered with effect from May 1, 2021.
