5 Reasons To Activate Or Close An Inoperative Bank Account

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oi-Sunil

By Sunil Fernandes

Published: Monday, February 8, 2016, 8:56 [IST]

Crime Patrol, a popular television serial (which telecasts real life stories) recently showed an episode in which Rs 80 lakhs was swindled from an inoperative bank account, of a dead person, which the legal heir had not closed. Such cases of fraud transactions happening in bank accounts is not very uncommon.

It is extremely important to either close or activate an operative bank accounts. We give you 5 reasons why you should do so.

1. Chances of fraud

If you do not take any of the steps to ensure the above, you are encouraging fraud in an inoperative account. In the above mentioned crime patrol serial the back-end office of a particular bank changed the address of the dead account holder and perpetrated the fraud. We have often hear so many such fraud cases happening, because accounts that are not operational are easy targets, because nobody is monitoring such accounts.

2. Unwanted charges

If you do not maintain the balance, there would be charges that would be levied by the bank. Private sector banks in metropolitan cities, expect you to maintain an average quarterly balance of nearly Rs 10,000. If you do not, your balance can also turn negative. It is therefore extremely important that you either get the inoperative account operative or close in the bank account. This could happen on death of a holder, a long and detailed travel plan abroad.

3. Will lead to closure of Internet Banking

Remember, if the bank account is inoperative the bank will disable all your services, including internet banking and ATM charges. If you switch your job and have had a salary account, please make sure that you close the same.

4. Will lead to closure of ATM Bank

Your ATMs also would be disabled by the bank. It would than lead to a lengthy procedure that would need to start and make the account operative.

5. How do banks define an in inoperative account?

The bank considers one year of transactions for the purpose. You need to give fresh know your customer documents, in case you decide to make the account operative once again.

Generally, if there is no customer induced bank transaction, the account may be considered as inoperative for the last one year. Therefore, if there is interest earned on a savings bank account, it may not be considered for the purpose. You can ask individuals to keep depositing money at regular intervals to keep the bank account going.

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