IDFC FIRST announces zero-fee banking for 25 services in savings accounts

New Delhi: On the occasion of its foundation day on December 18, IDFC FIRST Bank has announced zero-fee banking on savings accounts. The Bank has waived off fees on 25 commonly-used banking services related to savings accounts such as cash deposit and withdrawal at branches, third-party cash transactions, demand drafts, immediate payment service (IMPS), National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), cheque book, SMS alerts, interest certificates, insufficient balance for ATM transactions, international ATM usage and so on, according to a statement from the lender.

Even customers maintaining as low as Rs 10,000 as average monthly balance (AMB), as well as the Rs 25,000 AMB savings account variant will enjoy these benefits. This will benefit all customers, particularly those with lesser financial literacy who find it difficult to compute the fees and charges, the lender said. (Also Read: Post office scheme: Make Rs 16 lakh by just investing Rs 10,000; check return calculator, other key details)

IDFC FIRST Bank said it believes that understanding the fee levied involves complicated calculations, and many customers are not aware of the charges they incur. In addition, the debit entries for charges go unnoticed among a large number of entries of actual transactions made by the customer in the statement of account, according to the statement from the lender. (Also Read: THESE are 4 LIC schemes offering HIGHEST RETURN; Check return calculator, policy terms, premiums, other key details)

In such a landscape, the Bank said it offers a range of services with zero fees for 25 essential services. According to the statement, these zero-charge services are a number of cash transactions at branches per month (both deposit and withdrawal), the value of cash transactions (both deposit and withdrawal) at branches, third-party cash transaction charges (both deposit and withdrawal) at branches, issuance charges for demand drafts/PO at bank locations, IMPS charges per outward transaction, NEFT charges per outward transaction at branch, RTGS charges per outward transaction at branch, cheque book charges, SMS alert charges, issuance of duplicate statements, passbook charges, charges of balance certificate, charges of interest certificate (certificate tells you the exact amount of interest you have received in a financial year for each of your fixed deposits and savings accounts), account closure and Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) return charges.

The lender also said it would waive off charges completely for stop payment charges, charges for international ATM/ point-of-sale (POS) transaction, charge for insufficient balance per transaction at ATM, standing instruction charges, charges for cancellations or revalidation of managers' cheque or demand drafts, photo attestation charges, signature attestation charges, old records or copy of paid cheques charges, address confirmation charges and lastly any deliverable returned by courier due to negative reasons.