How many idle Bank Accounts do you have?

Ashok Goyal
March 21, 2017

In a bid to get the cheques encashed immediately, most of us used to open the accounts with different banks in different cities just to forget even the account numbers at a later stage. Such accounts die their own death and become Zero Balance Accounts, which can not only be misused for money laundering purposes but also can damage your credit reputation.

Now 31st March is approaching very fast and beginning 1st April 2017, most of the big private sector and public sector banks including State Bank of India, largest bank in Asia, have revised the minimum balance and other charges.

It is a proper time to close all such idle accounts which may not get converted into liabilities for you in the near future.

Often banks insist for a personal visit of the customer to the concerned branch for the closure of accounts, but you can follow the following procedure to Get rid of Zero Balance Accounts:

  • Withdraw the credit balance either through Net Banking or through ATM to make the balance zero.
  • Send an email to the bank branch to close the zero balance account but your request must be supported by a scanned copy of your signed request.
  • The original Signed request should also be sent to the branch through speed post and you can check the status of your account either through net banking of by calling the customer care toll free number of the bank.
  • Do not forget to destroy the checkbook and ATM-cum-Debit Card.
  • In case you have provided the account number for remittance of benefits like LPG Subsidy, LIC Survival benefit or dividend on shares, please ensure that you change your account number everywhere.

For detailed guidelines, please go through my detailed advice at Quora Forum.


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