Salary account conversion to Regular Savings Account

[AAK]

Salary accounts have some benefits like Zero Balance , account , decent ATM withdrawal limits as well as waiver on certain charges like debit card charges etc.

Has anybody have experience with HDFC ( or any other Bank) salary account being converted to normal savings account automatically on non credit of salary for consecutive 3 months ?
Can I open another salary account in other bank without losing benefits of previous bank ?

 

[Smh]

Depends upon your luck

 

[AAK]

@Smh what has been your experience ?

 

[Smh]

Mine remained salary account though I maintain good balance or atleast above 10k so don't have to worry about it.

But I know people whose account was converted to normal and balance became negative after fines.

 

[Chip]

Salary accounts are may be converted when the bank realises there are no salary credits to that particular account. It's not a given though. Most of my accounts have remained 'salary' tagged and still avail of zero balance and other benefits.

 

[AAK]

@Chip How can I check the 'Salary' tag in HDFC account ? I didn't find any option related to that

 

[Smh]

Click on account no it shows MAB requirements if it's 0 or normal MAB.

 

[mikrotik]

Generally speaking, banks cannot have negative balance in a savings account as per RBI guidelines. If they do that, you can challenge this with RBI ombudsman. I kind of agree with @Chip. In most scenario the downgrade won't happen automatically. It is usually a manual process. So no can say for certain if downgrade will happen or not.
Regarding checking the account variant, in the statement, account variant is mentioned.
Downgrade is same for relationship also, let's say you open wealth relationship with bank. They have eligibility criteria and there are no charges for non maintaining the criteria. Legally they can downgrade but usually it is not done.

 

[Chip]

@AAK I am not sure because I don't have a HDFC salary account, only a normal savings account. Thing to watch out for is if they send you SMSes about maintaining a minimum balance then your account is normal, if no such SMSes are received then it remains salary. To be absolutely sure just call up the bank or visit your branch to enquire. In all my years of using salary accounts (and trust me, it's a lot) the account tag doesn't change unless the branch is watchful. And as @mikrotik said, if you have a wealth mgmt or similar priority banking account with a bank then they maintain the relationship by not bugging you with SMSes on this matter.

 

[godric_gt]

Not related to HDFC, but my previous salary account had the employers address listed in the official address, my attempts to remove it was refused and for any kind of updates they wanted HR letter. I saw no point in taking this nonsense to my present employer. Its always best not to keep unwanted mailing addresses associated with your account, although it was marked as a secondary address, still there is a risk of mail routing incase it could not be delivered to your primary address. And incase of any mishap the onus will be on me. In netbanking these details were not visible, I only came across it when a replacement credit card was delivered.