Engineer's Finance

Have you checked your bank statement recently? When was the last time did you see your bank statement? Did you notice anything strange? Do you have a savings or current account? Any idea of how much is the interest earned by the savings that you have in your account?

If you don’t check your bank statements regularly then I guess it is very hard for you to track your financial status. There are chances that bank might charge you unnecessarily. You might be wondering that you need bank to safe guard your money but the truth bank needs customers and not the other way around. If you decide to safe guard your money then I think bank is not necessary at all.

Couple of months back, I was charged Rs.750 + 12% Service Tax because I had not maintained a minimum balance of Rs.5000. When I opened the account with that bank they said since I worked for “xyz” company I can maintain a zero balance in my account, when I shifted to other company the zero balance account became a minimum balance of 5k. I was not informed about the same. I got really angry with the bank that they had deducted money from my account. I called up the customer service and asked them why they had deducted money from my account? They explained me that since my account is not zero balance account any more I had to maintain a balance of 5k for every quarter. I asked them that I was not informed about it and I am not interested to be their customer and I thought it is better to close the account with them. I told them that this is my decision and I don’t really require this account since today they deducted so much amount without my knowledge. I was really unhappy with it and enquired them regarding how to close the account. The customer executive who was on call with me asked me to hold on and speak to his manager, I was not keen on speaking to anyone as I was very unhappy with the bank. The manager asked me why I have decided to close the account. I told him the entire story again and he said he will refund the amount but he can’t make my account as before i.e. to maintain zero balance. I told him that I am really not interested in that deal and told him that I would prefer to close it. He again told me to consider it and get back. I told him to explain me how to close the account? He said he will get back to me and we ended the call.

After an hour, I got the call from the same gentleman and he said he was ready to make things as per my conditions. I was very happy about it and told him that it was very kind of him to do such a noble gesture. All this happened because I had a constant look at my bank statements. If I had not kept an eye on the statements then I am sure that I would have not bothered about the money that the bank siphoned out of me.

My suggestion is keep a look on your bank statements on a weekly basis and report to the bank officials if you find anything fishy.