Hidden Charges of Saving Bank Account
Saving bank accounts can have lot of hidden charges which most of the times we are not aware of. A few days back one of my friends was looking at his ICICI Bank statement and found 3 consecutive deductions of Rs 28.09 with the description of POSDEC CHG/11-06-14/8833/25ST3. As happens most of the times it’s almost impossible to figure out what this alien description meant!
A little research and asking friends revealed that POSDEC CHG means Point of Sale Decline Charges.
This means you tried using your debit card for paying something at the merchant but the transaction was declined due to insufficient funds in the account.
Also Read: 22 Hidden Charges in Saving Bank Account
This is what happens at the merchant side. You gave your debit card for payment. The transaction gets declined but you and the merchant does not know the reason for decline. As most of the times network failure/ wrong pin etc are responsible. So the merchant swipes the card multiple times but every time it’s declined! The unfortunate part ICICI deducts this POSDEC CHG of Rs 28.09 for every swipe! So in my friend’s case it was tried 3 times and hence there are 3 consecutive deductions!
My friend had gone to his usual departmental store for his regular purchase and gave his ICICI debit card for payment. The problem was he had 2 accounts with ICICI Bank and by mistake he gave the card which did not have sufficient funds. The transaction did not go through the card so he paid by cash and moved on. He only realized his mistake when he got to see these charges after more than a month in his statement! I am sure this can happen to lot many people especially who have multiple cards of the same bank!
As a customer I find these charges completely unethical and then series of deduction for the same transaction – I have no words!
It’s not like all the transactions that are declined are because of insufficient funds. On the contrary the most declines are due to network issues! But how a customer can know the decline reason?
The bank should have either sent SMS to the customer that the decline is due to insufficient funds or may have charged only once for one transaction.
In such cases “prevention is better than cure”. So if such charges are reflecting in your statement you can talk to ICICI call center executive and tell him to reverse these charges. You have two problems here:
A simple Google search and you would see multiple complaints regarding such charges online. In one extreme case I found the customer was charged 19 consecutive times probably for the same transaction!
RBI wants to encourage payments through Debit/credit cards but such practices by banks would be highly detrimental! Probably some rules/clarifications from RBI regarding these unethical charges might help.
There are few things you should take care while using your debit card:
Do you know of other banks who have such unethical practices or have you or your friends gone through this? If yes please leave comment to make everyone aware of such practices!
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i agree with you, we need to case on those banks, who ever are doing like this. without sms/mail they don't need to deduct any money from bank..
Me too got the same issue but through online recharge due to network issued it declined for that they charged around 28 rupees. NO ONE TO ASK ?????
You can tweet to ICICI Bank or talk to there customer care.
Hdfc has deducted POSDEC CHG 13 times from my account. I tried to register complain but no action is taken by bank. they also have charged 999 rupees for international transaction for purchased of an application from google play. I am really frustrated from such practices of bank so i transfer my whole money into my another bank account and tried to close it but by the time I submit application for close my account they charged me for not maintaining average minimum balance and asking me to deposit money in my account. Should I left my account empty without closing it. Please suggest..
I totally understand your frustration with these unethical banking charges. It's better to close the account but in case you think its too much of hassle you can withdraw entire amount and leave the account as it is. As per RBI guidelines balance in savings account cannot be negative.
Yes i have checked my ICICI saving account balance and found that 28.80 rs had been deducted not one times but five times.....
I have only one objection that they should inform by giving simple sms so we were aware about that...
Totally agree with you. This is unethical on ICICI part. Contact there customer care and you might get these amount reversed!
I have checked my account of ICICI and the same POSDEC CHG has been charged. I have always maintained the MAB in my account and still I don't understand the reason for this additional charges.
Contact them on twitter or customer care!
On 2 occasions in Nov, HDFC bank charged Rs. 9.73 and Rs. 22.90 with description "Fee-ATM Non Cash(1Txn)", what does it mean? This is unethical. Will check with bank tomorrow. However, please advise.
@Kalpana Seems like HDFC bank has charged you for non-cash transaction like PIN change/Balance enquiry/Mini statement. There is limit to number of non-cash transactions you can do in a month. Yes I agree it's totally unfair & unethical! You should read 22 Hidden Charges in Saving Bank Account for more info.
Oriental bank of commerce doesn't charge for it.it has no charge for SMS alerts and also for ATM withdrawal without sufficient funds .
This is good news and an exception :)
Yesterday I cancelled the transaction because I was not using the registered number, hence not receiving OTP; which I realized later. Today I saw the charges of 28.5 Rs. ha been deducted 2 times from my account. This is just not done. I am collecting amount for RD. Now I will have to again deposit money. What to do?
Nice article. I too was charged twice from ICICI bank. They deducted demat account charges from my account and I was unaware of that as I didn't get any message from bank. I went for some online transaction and it was declined by the bank, I couldn't figure I out why it was declined, later I found that it was due to insufficient fund. This is totally ridiculous. Thanks for sharing this info.
Dear Mr. Mehta,
We regret any inconvenience faced. Please write to care@icicibank.com with your contact details. Our official will contact you and assist. Kindly refer '135066_aaan' in the subject line.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team
Thanks for sharing valuable information, I was suffered in 2010 same thing was happen trying to withdrawal from ATM but due to technical issue amount has debited from account & physically cash not withdrawal, I was tried more than 4 time bank has charges above mention charges after 3 month when I saw statement than write to bank about return the same bank has refund the all amount.
good that you got the return :)