Great Indian 'Silent' Bank Loot

Are Banks "Silently" Looting You?

 

Main concept of a Bank:-

The main concept of a bank is based on "trust" between the bank and the depositor and between the bank and loane(one who takes a loan) .
Basically,people keep their money in banks for safety, security & to get interest while the banks use this money to give loans to others and make a profit from it. And from the profit , it gives a share to its depositors and keeps the lion's share with itself. So, the bank is  happy and depositors are  happy and it will be a win- win situation for all.
But,does it always work this way?
Not Necessarily.

If you have paid keen attention to your account balance in banks in the last few years then you might have noticed many unnecessary debits(reductions) in the balance.

These debits are nothing but the various charges that banks levy on their customers such as
1. Late Fees
2. Debit Card Annual Fees
3. SMS Fees
4. Fees for not balance below minimum monthly balance.
5. Credit Card Fees
 and other forms of fees and fines.



If you remember, during COVID years most customers received various SMS about small deductions such as Rs.200,Rs500 etc even when you were not making any bank transactions. These were nothing but various charges such as TDS , card fees etc that banks automatically deducted from your accounts.

Recently, various banks have increased their charges and fees e.g Canara Bank has increased its debit card annual fees for standard card from Rs125 to Rs250(with GST) and platinum debit card from Rs250 to Rs600(with GST).

Also some banks issue only the higher variant of cards and their other products by default and charge hefty fees from tge customer. Most customers aren't even aware about such practices by banks.



Now some people definitely donot care about such mal  practices by banks as such things are not 'illegal' according to the made up laws by Govts. May be even you donot care about such things.

But let's just do some random calculations to see how much money a bank can make from such practices.

E.g 

Suppose Bank X has 20 crore customers(i.e BANK ACCOUNTS). Suddenly out of nowhere, X decides to charge Rs.500 from each account as some random fees then how much money does X make?

Ans.  20crore × Rs. 500 = 10,000Crore
(i.e 1,00,00,00,00,000)

Another example
Let's make is more simple suppose X deducts Rs.1 from each account due to some reason on monthly basis. So, how much does the Bank make at the end? Not Enough,Right!

Ans. 20crore × Rs 1 × 12 = Rs.240crore

And all these is free money for the bank. "Free Money" because the Bank doesnot have to work for it. If you remember the main concept of a bank then you can see that when banks give loans, they have to work and try to recover it and also there is a risk of losing it in some way. But by charging customers even for the basic facilites banks are making free money.


Now  a question arises 

WHY ARE BANKS DOING IT?

 
Obviously, due to this stupid acts of banks the level of trust between banks and depositors decreases but banks still do it.
Why?you may ask. The answers are simple

1. Banks think that the customers are "BIG FOOLS" who will keep paying them any amount they want.
2. The banks are greedy and want to make as much profit as they can.
3. NOW ,THE MAJOR REASON IS

If you remember ,there are news all over about people taking loans of 10,000 Crore,20,000 crore,  50,000crore and running away to foreign countries by not paying the loans. This acutually hurts the business of a bank and it is difficult to recover a loan on foreign lands especially when banks are not even able to recover loans in their own country.
So, for the crimes that those few people did, the loyal customers of the bank have to pay for it. This is how the society works. A few people enjoy the rewards of their crime while millions of honest people have to pay for those crimes of few.

Remember that the  money in banks is your money that you deposit. So, when someone steals/robs this money in the name of "loan" then that person is not only robbing the bank but also stealing from you.

In a way, you are paying for the loans of those criminals and this how the banks work these days not  only banks  but the GOVT works this way too.


BANKS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS  so keep a keen eye on the None Performing Assets of the banks and their activities and raise your voice against injustice and malpractices otherwise the world is always ready to exploit you.

The sad part is neither RBI nor the Govt is ready to solve this serious problem.

This are few examples of service charges by banks in recent time:

• Cash deposits and withdrawals at bank branches; 
• cash deposits in accounts other than one’s own; 
• cash withdrawal from ATMs; 
• issuance fee on debit cards; annual charge on debit cards; 
• balance inquiry at ATMs; mini-statements from ATMs; 
• regeneration of ATM pin code from branch; account closing charges; 
• transaction declined with debit cards due to insufficient funds; 
• SMS alerts that a customer gets from banks; change in address; 
• change in mobile number; changes in KYC related documents; 
• cash deposits at CDMs (Cash Deposit Machines); 
• change of soiled/mutilated/old currency notes; NEFT and RTGS transfer of funds; 
• surcharges on uses of debit cards for rail tickets, petrol/fuel/ gas stations and payment of certain bills and government services; 
• cheque books; 
• demand draft; 
• balance certificate; 

and signature verification. 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER:

The above article is written exercising the Fudamental Right of Freedom of Speech under Indian Constitution.

Right to Freedom 

Article 19. (1) All citizens shall have the right—
(a) to freedom of speech and expression;Freedom of Speech and expression  
• Freedom of Speech and expression means the right  
to express one’s own convictions and opinions  
freely by words of mouth, writing, printing,  
pictures or any other mode. It thus includes the  
expression of one’s ideas through any  
communicable medium or visible representation,  
such as, gesture, signs and the like.