IDFC First Bank comes out with flying colours in reasonableness of service charges survey
IDFC First Bank is the only bank in India that does not charge for debit card of any variant of its savings account, while the annual fee for debit cards at most banks ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 300
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Hyderabad: IDFC First Bank has come out as class apart vis-à-vis other banks in the private sector, according to a pathbreaking new research benchmarking reasonableness of service charges levied by banks across India. The study has been authored by Ashish Das, Professor, Department of Mathematics, from IIT Bombay, was commissioned by Moneylife Foundation.
According to the author, Das, this report is a holistic assessment of banks.
IDFC First Bank has overall featured in category A bank among commercial banks. Even among the category A banks, IDFC First Bank is the only bank that charges Zero Fees on all services in savings accounts, on all account variants, urban or rural, irrespective of AMB, whether Rs 5000 (offered in rural area), 10,000 or Rs 25000.
The Moneylife Ashish Das report points out that On-Us (own bank’s) ATM cash withdrawal, 16 banks charge Rs 10 or less, while the remaining 9 banks charge at the caps set by RBI (Rs 20 or Rs 21). IDFC First Bank is the only Bank that provides unlimited ATM cash withdrawal without any fees. For Off-Us (other banks’), while all banks charge Rs 20 or Rs 21, IDFC First Bank charges Zero.
IDFC First Bank is one of the only four banks which do not charge for IMPS transactions. It is also one of the few banks that do not charge for SMS alerts which may vary to Rs 100 or Rs 150 per quarter, where limits have been specified by banks or higher if there are no limits specified.
The report also says that IDFC First Bank is the only bank in India that does not charge debit card for any variant of its savings account, while annual fee for debit cards at most banks’ ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 300.
As per the report, NACH “mandate registration” are Nil at IDFC First Bank, while charges in the system vary between Rs 36 to Rs 108. Further, for failed NACH mandate, on an average, banks charge between Rs 261 to Rs 455 while IDFCFB is the only bank that charges Zero fees for failed NACH Mandate.
While these are the specific comparisons made in the report, we are proud that IDFC First Bank offers unique customer friendly and customer first product propositions for its including zero fees for many other services such as RTGS, NEFT, Cash Deposit at branches and online, 3rd party transaction charges at branches, Cheque book, Demand Drafts, Pay-order, duplicate statement, and all 28 such services that are usually charged in the market. IDFC First Bank follows the principle that it won’t touch its customers’ bank account for any reason whatsoever so customers can have total peace of mind. The bank does not have the concept of “home” branch, and all nearly 1,000 branches of the bank are Home Branches for the customer, hence the bank does not have “non-Home branch” access charges.
Even in case customer do not maintain minimum balance requirements, then only AMB maintenance charges apply and IDFC First bank does not charge any fees for these services mentioned above for customers not able to maintain minimum balances.
Finally, the bank removed complicated calculations, legalese, and descriptions that customers normally don’t understand.
This report is a path breaking work by Prof Das, that compares all banks in India in painstaking detail to bring it together.
