Salary account: What will happen if salary is not credited regularly?

If you have a salary account with some PSU or private bank, then there must be some extra benefits over and above what a bank generally offers a normal customer.

But what will happen if salary is not credited to the designated account regularly?

When there is no salary credit in the salary account for continuous three months, the account will be turned into a savings account and individuals need to maintain the minimum balance and other things that are stipulated by the bank.

The salary account is not closed by the bank automatically. A bank is not permitted to close any account unless the customer requests it.

Banks can only freeze accounts if there is no transaction in the account for a particular period, i.e. three months.

After that one has to pay a penalty and regularise the account. If there is no transaction in the account for two years, other than interest credit in the salary account or savings account, the bank will classify it as dormant or inoperative account and freeze it.

Charges to pay

Once your salary account turns into a savings account due to non-credit of salary for consecutive three months, you have to maintain the average monthly balance regularly.

Charges such as account maintenance annual charges, charges for debit cards, inter-branch cash deposit charges, SMS alert charge, cheque book charge etc will be levied.

Things to keep in mind

To avoid this situation, you should keep two-three things in mind. First, if you change your job then link the existing salary account to the new office. Otherwise, you can close the previous salary account and open a new one.

Second, if your new office is not linked your previous account and you want to continue the account then use the previous salary account as a normal savings account and maintain the balance and other rules.

After some time, you can turn the savings account into a zero balance PM Jan-Dhan account and enjoy all the benefits.