Minimum balance for post office saving accounts raised to Rs 500

Palakkad: Post office savings schemes are still popular though efforts to promote universal banking are successful. Many people from the economically backward sections opt for postal deposit schemes as the minimum balance requirement is very low. The Department of Post has now decided to increase the minimum balance limit from Rs 50 to Rs 500.

Moreover, Rs 100 will be deducted as penalty on the last working day of the financial year if the account holder fails to keep the minimum requirement. Account holders have been asked to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 500 before December.

Your post office savings account would automatically get closed if it had zero balance on the last working day of the year for three years.

Also, the account holder will have to make at least one financial transaction (deposit or withdrawal) in a financial year to ensure operability.

The Department of Post has also restricted the number of free cheque leaves to 10 per year. Fee has to be paid for every extra cheque leaf issued in a year.

Annual service charge too could be imposed for ATM cards issued against your postal saving account. In 2018 the postal department had decided not to collect any service charge for its saving schemes.

The total deposits in all 9 crore postal saving bank accounts in the country come to around Rs 500 crore. There are over 1.5 lakh post offices.

The Department has not hiked any fee for accounts under India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).