Axis Bank will load its customers with higher charges on certain services while increasing the minimum monthly balance requirement in savings bank accounts, Indianbankingnews.com has learnt. For those who are not complying with this, the bank will charge a higher penalty.

Axis Bank’s metro savings bank customers will have to maintain a monthly minimum balance of Rs 15,000, up from the current requirement of Rs 10,000.

The minimum monthly balance requirement criteria for Prime and Liberty account holders in semi-urban and rural locations is being raised to Rs 25,000.

The country's third largest private-sector lender has also decided to introduce a fee for non-maintenance of balance for its Prestige and Priority account holders. Currently, the bank does not charge a penalty for these kind of account holders.

Axis Bank will make these revisions with effect from 1 May.

For existing Prime variant account holders, the balance requirement criteria is revised to Rs 25,000 average monthly balance or Rs 1 lakh term deposit. In case of Liberty accounts, the average monthly balance is revised to Rs 25,000 or spends of Rs 25,000.

Failing to maintain these limits on a monthly basis will invite penalties which can go up to Rs 800, depending on the quantum of the shortfall. It will be calculated at the rate of Rs 10 per Rs 100 of the shortfall from the average monthly balance requirement. The minimum penalty for failing to maintain the minimum balance is Rs 50.

A Prime customer, however, gets a penalty waiver if the account holder keeps a term deposit of Rs 1 lakh. For the liberty account holder in the semi-urban and rural areas, the penalty is waived if there is a monthly spend of Rs 25,000 from the bank’s debit card.

The existing minimum monthly balance requirement in savings bank accounts was Rs 10,000. The maximum penalty was fixed at Rs 600 and minimum penalty at Rs 50.

Cash withdrawal charges is now Rs 10 for every Rs 1,000 withdrawn. All customers have a certain number of free withdrawals after which the charges will be applicable.

Axis Bank is also raising its charges for SMS alerts. From 1 July, the bank will charge 25 paise per SMS up to a maximum of Rs 25 a month. The existing rates were Rs 5 for a month and Rs 15 for a quarter.

Charges for stop payment of cheque are down to Rs 50 per cheque up to a maximum. This will not include promotional text messages or messages sent to the customer or the OTP that is sent to authenticate transactions. Premium accounts, salary accounts and basic accounts will also be spared from charges.

Meanwhile, Axis Bank has reduced charges on some its services. For the issuance of duplicate pass book, the charge is now reduced to Rs 75 from Rs 100. For balance verification issuance, the charge is now Rs 50 from Rs 100 earlier while for physical statements, the charge is now brought down to Rs 75 from Rs 100.

The government accounts, Burgundy accounts holders and the trust accounts are exempted from the higher levies. The charges for photo attestation, signature verification, balance certificate issuance and address confirmation have been reduced from Rs 100 to Rs 50.