Should one close bank accounts that he doesn’t need?

POSTED BY VG ON May 1, 2014 8:13 am COMMENTS (4)

Multiple bank accounts tend to get created when one changes jobs from one firm to another, since each firm needs you to open a salary account with the bank with whom they have tie-up.

So  is it worth taking the trouble to close your old salary accounts which you no longer require? Can it cause any harm if you just let them be, with zero balance? They will likely become inoperative in some time, but so what.

I feel one reason to let them remain is that in future if I need an a/c in that bank, I can simply make my old a/c operative, rather than going thru trouble of opening new one (for which I’ll also require an ‘introduction’).

Would like to have your views. Thanks

Regards,

Vaibhav

4 replies on this article “Should one close bank accounts that he doesn’t need?”

  1. ashalanshu says:

    Dear Vaibhav, SB accounts are not part of CIBIL reports but in case of penalties levied by bank on you and not paid by you, the same ‘ll be reported to CIBIL.

    Thanks

    Ashal

  2. Vaibhav Goyal says:

    Thanks Hemanth & Ashal for your response.
    Actually your saving/current account balance have no impact on the CIBIL score. In fact even a bounced cheque wouldn’t adversely impact your score (surprisingly!), unless its towards your loan/card repayment. Refer this :

    https://www.cibil.com/myth-vs-facts-cibil

    Yes am already aware that salary a/c gets converted (at least its supposed to) from zero balance to normal savings a/c . But in my case, 2 of my accounts (IDBI & ING Vysya) enjoy zero balance even years after leaving service 🙂

  3. ashalanshu says:

    Dear Vaibhav, a plain answer is yes. Else the CIBIL issue may be there for not maintaining average balance in the account.

    Thanks

    Ashal

  4. Hemanth Chandra says:

    Generally, if salary account is not credited with the salary for 3 continuous months, the account will be changed to normal savings account, where you have to maintain minimum balance depending on the location of branch (which ranges from 5k-20k). If you don’t maintain the balance, you will be charged with penalty (250-1k) per month depending on bank,branch. This conversion from salary account to normal account might not happen soon after 3 months, but it will surely happen.

    So, check with your bank regarding the same and proceed. This process is same for most of the private banks.

    Also, there are some queries in the same forum asking that they have left the salary account without using and one fine day they came to know that they have to pay good amount of money to solve the issue.

    Not sure, I think having a account inactive for long time might also effect your CIBIL score.

    So, before leaving the account as it is, if you want to use it sometime in future, better have the minimum balance in the account to avoid penalty.

    Hope my answer is clear.

    Regards,
    Hemanth.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.