Good news for HDFC Bank users: RTGS, NEFT transactions made free from Nov 1

Private lender HDFC Bank has made online transactions through RTGS and NEFT free of cost from November 1, with an aim to promote a digital economy.

On the other hand, various charges for cheque-related transactions as well as request for additional leaves will get costly from early next month for non-managed savings and salary accounts.

According to the revised fees and charges for savings and salary accounts, customers will not have to pay any charge for doing online transactions through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and the National Electronics Funds Transfer (NEFT) from November 1, 2017.

Earlier, customers were levied Rs 25 each for Rs 2-5 lakh online transaction via RTGS and Rs 50 each for such money transfers over Rs 5 lakh. Online NEFT transactions attracted a fee of Rs 2.5 for less than Rs 10,000, Rs 5 for Rs 10,001-1 lakh and Rs 15 for above Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.

For NEFT transactions of over Rs 2 lakh, there was a fee of Rs 25.

However, any NEFT or RTGS transaction carried out at the bank branch will be payable.

"The revision in NEFT/RTGS online charges is applicable across all retail savings, salary and non-resident customers effective November 1, 2017," HDFC Bank said in a notice to customers.

RTGS refers to real time gross settlement of fund transfers. NEFT is an electronic fund transfer that settles transactions in batches. It operates in hourly batches and any transaction initiated after a designated settlement timeline has to wait till the next designated settlement time.

On cheque book issuance, HDFC Bank said a customer can avail one chequebook of 25 leaves free only once in a year in contrast to two such chequebooks. However, the cost of requesting an additional chequebook (25 leaves) has been kept unchanged at Rs 75 each.

Also, if a cheque is returned due to insufficient funds, each such cheque will now attract a penalty of Rs 500 each.

Earlier, for first cheque return in a quarter, Rs 350 was levied and for subsequent instances in the same quarter, Rs 750 was imposed by the bank.

Besides, in cases where cheques deposited are returned unpaid, the charge has been raised to Rs 200 per instance from the Rs 100 earlier.

"The revision in chequebook and cheque return charges is applicable only to non-managed resident savings and salary customers effective December 1, 2017," read the bank notice.