SBI vs HDFC Bank vs ICICI Bank vs PNB: Cheque bounce charges explained

Cheque books have been an integral part of banking for decades. With the advent of digital technologies like NEFT and IMPS, their uses may have been gone down now, but cheques are still very much in the business and are widely used to make payments and sometimes to withdraw a large amounts of money from the bank concerned. If you have issued a cheque for payment and it bounces (is rejected for any reason), then you will have to pay certain charges. A cheque may get bounced due to various reasons including insufficient funds or signature mismatch.

The cheque bounce charges are different for different banks and it does attract GST. If your cheque was deposited in the State Bank of India and has been returned due to insufficient funds, you will be charged Rs 500+GST (irrespective of the amount). However, if there is any technical reason behind it like a signature mismatch, you will be charged Rs 150+GST. As per RBI guidelines, a customer cannot be charged if he/she is not at fault in case of a cheque bounce.

However, if the check pertains to the HDFC Bank, then you will be charged a maximum of Rs 500. Below are the charges levied by the HDFC Bank:

ICICI Bank charges a minimum of Rs 100 and a maximum of Rs 750 depending upon the case.

For Punjab National Bank, the cheque book return charges are directly linked to the amount of the cheque. See the chart below:

The cheque bounce charges mentioned above are as per the official website of the respective banks. You can contact your bank's customer care number or your branch for further clarification about these cheque bounce charges.