SBI minimum balance: State Bank of India account holder? Avoid penalty by maintaining this amount

State Bank of India (SBI), the largest lender in the country, requires its regular savings account holders to keep certain average of daily balance every month to avoid penalty charges. If you are not able to maintain it, you will have pay the penalty. According to the SBI website: sbi.co.in, failure to maintain sufficient balance in the savings bank account attracts a penalty ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 15, along with GST, for the customer. Further, the website informs that the amount of balance, the average monthly balance (AMB), required in SBI's regular savings account varies from customer to customer, and it depends on factors like branch location and the degree of shortfall. 
 
The SBI, therefore, has put in place a set of rules, which determine the average monthly balance (AMB) required in the savings account. Notably, the SBI's minimum balance requirements differ in different branch types, as given below:

The largest lender has categorised its branches into four types including metro, urban, semi-urban and rural, according to location. 

The SBI website says that customers holding savings accounts are required to maintain an average monthly average of Rs 1,000-3,000 to avoid any penalty charges. 

In metro and Urban branches, average monthly balance requirement is Rs 3000, in semi-urban branches the average monthly balance requirement is Rs 2000, while in rural branches the average monthly balance requirement is Rs 1,000, according to sbi.co.in. Therefore, SBI savings account holder should comply with the monthly average requirement to avoid the penalty charges.

If the savings account holder fails to maintain the average balance in a month, he/she has to bear the penalty charges. There are certain factors such as branch location and degree of shortfall, which is the difference between the average required and the average achieved by an account holder in a month, to decide the penalty charges SBI will impose. 

If the shortfall is less than 50, penalty for non-maintenance of AMB in urban/metro SBI branches would be Rs 10 plus GST, if shortfall is over 50% and up to 75%, this amount would be Rs 12 plus GST, while the shortfall being is above 75%, the penalty would be Rs 15 plus GST.

In semi-urban SBI branches, the penalty for non-maintenance of AMB would be charged Rs 7.50 plus GST if shortfall id less than 50%, Rs 10 plus GST if the shortfall is more than 50% and up to 75%, and in case of shortfall over 75%, the penalty would be Rs 12 plus GST.

However, the penalty for non-maintenance of AMB in rural SBI branches is comparatively less than other type of branches. If shortfall is less than 50%, penalty for non-maintenance of AMB would be Rs 5 plus GST; if the AMB is over 50% and upto 75% the penalty would be Rs 7.50 plus GST; if shortfall is over 75%, the penalty would be Rs 10 plus GST, according to sbi.co.in.

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Notably, SBI savings accounts including Jan Dhan accounts, basic savings accounts, salary package accounts and small bank accounts are not expected to maintain any particular average monthly balance. These savings account therefore can be operated with zero balance.