average quarterly balance: be careful…
if you opened a bank account and the bank said ‘you have to keep an average quarterly balance of Rs. 5000’ please ask them what it means.
In many banks this AQB means all your balances across savings, current, fixed deposits,…are all considered while this amount is calculated.
Recently one senior citizen who had opened a bank account with a bank called Ratnakar bank (not sure whether one should open an account – rather why somebody would choose such a bank beats me) had a poor experience.
He had opened a savings bank account with Rs. 5000 (min AQB of 5k) and then made a FD with them for Rs. 50,000. The quarterly interest is of course being transferred to his savings bank account. However he withdrew Rs. 4k from his sb account….The bank told him ‘SB account is different from FD account’ – they are not clubbed.
He is 85 years old….and obviously did not understand AQB…:-)
What he earns as interest in the FD he will lose almost that much as charges…
Have you wondered why banking is so profitable? Well deal with Ratnakar branch, Nerul branch, and you will experience it….:-)
The manager claims to be from Icici bank and says ‘it is the same in ICICI bank’…..LOL either he never knew or forgot.
wealthucreate
Sir,
I would like to share my exp and again it is with ICICI. I did miss out to maintain avg quarterly balance. I one fine day noticed that 500+ amount, i guess it was 750 got deducted and upon calling i learnt the reason.
I simply went up to the bank and requested for account closure form.
I said i would like to meet the bank manager also. I told that i was upset as money got deducted and till date i have been maintaing healthy balance. This quarter i could not and this is what you do.
I said i will close out my account. She said what if she reverts back the money, i said in that case i will continue and when ever possible i will pump more money through thier branch. she promised and reverted the money back.
Get directly in touch with manager
bharat shah
i think, it is same with my bank, HDFC BANK also( not including the linked fd’s balance with the saving bank a/c balance for AQB calculation). if any body has different information , kindly let us know through this blog, so i could benefit please.
Vijay Hegde
From a personal experience, one should also verify the definition of AQB if it is 3 calendar months or specific dates. ICICI follows calendar months (now ICICI has stopped AQB and its Average Monthly Balance). Axis Bank follows 25th Dec to 24th Mar(forgot the exact dates) and this I learnt by paying a fine of Rs 750 :(a year back prompting me to close the account.
Ashish
🙂 Its same with a lot of banks. SBI had deducted charges for minimum balance maintenance even though I had linked e-deposits which I had opened from the same savings account (via e-banking). This resulted in my savings balance gone below 5K i think. The charges were around 250 odd.
mani
To avoid such penalties, I keep an excel sheet where I update daily closing balances every day and make sure I am always in safer side.
Atul
I feel having 5000 as AQB in private banks is not justified. National banks like SBI charge 1000 as AQB.
I had bad experience with HDFC and ICICI w.r.t AQB.
Bala
btw. do they really calculate the average? or it is just the minimum balance in the quarter.
mani
@Bala
From my exp with ICICI, it is average not minimum. Otherwise, I will be often in trouble. 🙂
milind
I remember making Fixed Deposit with ICICI bank and had then asked them whether AQB will include this FD amount or not. Their answer for this was negative.
suresh
seems the general conclusion is does not matter which bank, always pays to double check and not trust the bank.
One well reputed private bank showed exponential growth in fee income even though their basic growth is on spread banking and they do not have Investment banking products…
shrinivas
In HDFC Bank,average MONTHLY balances should not fall below Rs.10000.Earlier they used to waive such condition in case the customer had a minimum FD of Rs.50000.Now, after April 1st 2012, they have changed the rules to have average monthly balances of Rs.10000.
I am thinking of changing my bank to SBI.
My main bank is, of course, Canara Bank (of which I am an ex-employee) and we don’t have any condition as to the minimum balance.
I need to have an HDFC bank a/c for SIPs and Sharekhan online transactions and they have given me a credit card free for life.
dr m kishan
As per my knowledge goes:
The calculation of average balance is done by adding up the daily closing balance of the account and then dividing this number by the no of days in question (90 days for quarterly balance or 30 for monthly balance). The resultant number should be more than the limit described in terms (i.e. 5000 or 10000 or as the case may be).
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks Subra sir
dr kishan
Ashok
As if all that confusion ain’t enough, AQB is not available as part of the online banking – So much for transparency
milind
In Axis bank account you can see the “Projected Average Quarterly Balance” online.
(It is present under ‘Accounts -> my account’ Menu).
It shows current quarter starting and end dates also.
See here
I guess all banks should do the same..
Banyan Financial Advisors
I might also want to add upon one more slightly important thing. These banks keep on increasing the AQB requirement without giving much notice or providing adequate information. The only time when we come to know about it is after being hit by the charges. Hence, it may be a good idea to look into the AQB requirement atleast on a quarterly / halfyearly basis to avoid any charges.
Regards
BanyanFA