Bank charges are a pain in the neck, especially when it comes to private banks, the account money is mostly diminished in the form of paying annual or monthly charges to the bank, most of which is not charged otherwise.
I had opened an account with the Canara Bank two years ago. The bank supposed considered to be a fast growing and uprising bank attracted a lot of customers initially owing to its flexible money deposit schemes and offers. Soon enough the reality dawned on me.
Canara Bank is a bank of Indian origin which is head quartered in Bangalore. The bank is considered to be one of the oldest banks of India having its origin in the early 1900’s. Just like any other private bank, Canara Bank also provides its customers with innumerable facilities once they open an account in the bank. However, I didn’t have so much of a pleasant experience with them.
Two weeks into opening my account with the Canara bank, I received my ATM cum Debit card. Delighted as I was, I checked my balance and found out that the amount which I had deposited in my account was okay. Next I didn’t utilize my ATM for a few weeks. After almost a month, when I was about to carry out a transaction, I noticed a deduction in my balance which was unusual. Since the deduction had been low(Rs.25), I didn’t stress my brain much. However after almost a month, there was another deduction which was of the same amount. This time I issued a mini statement and it showed that the deduction was due to transaction charge. Now what the hell was that?
Every time I used my card in an ATM other than Canara Bank, there was a deduction in charge. Moreover, the bank deducts a quarterly amount for ATM maintenance. I mean seriously. In SBI banks, this maintenance is half yearly or annually, I suppose. And the maintenance charge is almost a cent, which does affect us. Besides these deductions, Canara Bank also has a strict policy of maintaining a certain balance below which a fine is charged. Now during the opening of my account, I was asked whether I needed a zero balance account(in this types of account, there is no minimum balance limit) or not, for which I said yes. However, my balance still gets deducted when my account balance goes below Rs.500. When I tried to clarify with them, they didn’t respond at all.
Moreover, locating a Canara Bank branch is seriously a tough job. The bank has very few branches in our location which is Jamshedpur and it’s a pain to strain hard to search for a branch in our city.
Honestly, Canara Bank isn’t as fun as it looks. Opening an account in this bank is a big headache. I would rather suggest HDFC or ICICI in privates and SBI in governmental banks. Even though they are expensive, their services are a lot better and they are widely accepted as well.