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HDFC Deducts Money From My Account Automatically(AMB CHRG INCL ST & CESS )

Update: Today (24/02/15) one HDFC representative contacted me after reading this complaint and explained to me the circumstances under which they levied AMB penalty. She explained me, HDFC had sent me a post about the change of account status from salary A/C to normal savings A/C but the postal address listed in the bank details pointed to my old office. Unfortunately, they changed the office in the meantime and couldn't deliver the post. She also informed me HDFC doesn't intimate customers about account change via SMS but only through the post.

For those who are managing multiple bank accounts may don't recognize the white collar theft by banks in the form of hidden charges and penalties. I have been facing such a situation for the past few months, but yesterday I found it.

I have one HDFC account which was started as a salary account and then transformed into an ordinary savings account later. They told me it's a salary account and the minimum balance can be 0 rupees at the time of account opening. However, after leaving the job, HDFC converted my salary account to a regular savings account automatically.

The problem is, they didn't inform me the minimum balance I should keep on the account. According to Reserve Bank guidelines, every bank is required to inform the customer about the minimum charge he should maintain prior in his A/C to levy penalties.

I have added a link to the Reserve Bank guidelines for levy of penal charges on non-maintenance of minimum balances in savings bank accounts at the end of this article under resources. Now let me explain my situation.


Instructions To Delete DDFC Bank Beneficiary


Yesterday I logged on to my HDFC bank account to purchase an item from Snapdeal and got confused with the final amount after finishing the purchase procedure. So I decided to have a look at the mini statement to check the last 20 transactions. Everything looked fine until I found small withdrawals in the code name of AMB CHRG INCL ST & CESS.

They reduced the same amount in last month also. HDFC is charging 393.26 rupees per month under the same code name. I was confused about the meaning of the term - AMB CHRG INCL ST & CESS FOR JAN2015- and found that it is the short form of -Average Monthly Balance and they wanted me to keep 10,000 rupees in average a day in a month.

So in a month, the net amount I should keep must be 3,00,000 or more. The irony here is that they could have informed me about not having a minimum required balance. Instead of that, they deducted 393.26 rupees every month. The screenshot I have provided below will explain it.



I have marked two AMB CHRG INCL ST transaction on the bank statement screenshot. One is just above the NWD code and the other is above CHQ DEP - MICR CLG statement.

PS: If you have seen the code NWD DEC CHG on your account statement, it means the charge deducted for the withdrawal through ATM. The code "CHQ DEP-MICR CLG" describes the cheque deposited.

According to RBI guidelines, there are no guidelines for making a minimum balance, but it is mandatory to inform their customers about the same. You can read the story by visiting the RBI page below.
http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=1022&Mode=0

Despite the strict guidelines, HDFC is taking my money without informing the reason. No one can tolerate such an attitude. They should have at least send me SMS regarding non-maintenance of minimum balance.

However, HDFC publishes the minimum required balance for every type of accounts on their website. The link below will show the current HDFC minimum balance requirement for different accounts.
http://www.hdfcbank.com/nri_banking/accounts/savings_accounts/nre_savings_account/nre_savings_account_fees.htm


Resources

  1. RBI urges banks to inform their customers about the non-maintenance of minimum balance prior to levy penalty.

    http://rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=9343&Mode=0

  2. Some interesting threads which discuss the same issue.

    • http://www.consumercourt.info/topic/hdfc-deducted-more-than-4000-rs-from-my-saving-account

    • http://www.consumercomplaints.in/hdfc-bank-amb-chrg-incl-st-amp-cess-for-apr2014-c894201

    • https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/why-is-hdfc-bank-deducting-amb-charges.2650630/

    • http://www.complaintboard.in/complaints-reviews/hdfc-bank-l4627.html

    • Adding Beneficiary to Start Money Transfer Process

    Started Using Microsoft Office 365 From GoDaddy

    I had been using GoDaddy webmail service for my domain based email server until yesterday. If any of my readers send me a message at admin@corenetworkz.com, I would receive it on GoDaddy webmail. Today noon, I have migrated my webmail server from regular Godaddy webmail to Microsoft Office 365. The migration was not much stressful as I thought. However, I am afraid I lost some emails (fresh emails coming at the time of migration) during conversion time. According to their technical support, it may take up to 48 hours to start receiving emails to Office 365. Anyway, in the end, I am happy with this new product and that is why I am sharing my views with readers. If you don't know what is Office 365 and why do GoDaddy migrated their normal webmail service to this one, I recommend you to continue reading.


    Login Link for Microsoft Office 365

    It is easy to find the login link. all you have to do is to remember the following combination.

    email + . + domain name

    For example, the login page for the domain name CoreNetworkZ.com is given below.

    email.corenetworkz.com

    Type the above address and press enter button to see, following screen.


    Before using it, we need to configure it by simply pressing the button and wait for Microsoft to do it for you. Once the process is done (it may take a few seconds ), you will see the welcome screen.


    For those who are not familiar with Office applications, it might be a little confusing. One of my friends complained to me after configuring Office 365 for his domain about how to see the webmails send from his contacts. He was not able to see the messages sent from his business contacts after login to his account. Also, it can be misleading while seeing a list of items showing on this page.


    How to Access Inbox

    To access the inbox, you should click on Outlook.


    Here you can see one test message send from another ID. I do not think, anyone has any doubts about the working of this page. Click on the left-hand top to see the menu in case if you want to access any other feature from this page.

    Calendar

    To access Online calendar, click on calendar. You can create a group of similar minded people by clicking 'Create Group' on the left-hand side. You can access the same feature from the 'People' button also.




    Changing Password

    It is easy to change the passwords, subscriptions, users etc from the admin panel. Another method to change password is from Office 365 Settings window. To change the current password, follow the steps below.

    1. go to the main page (you may click on Office 365 on the top bar) and click Admin


    2. Reset password under Users & Groups


    Online Storage

    To store larger files online, you can use 'OneDrive' by clicking 'OneDrive' icon on the main window. Storage space offered by Microsoft varies with plans.

    Management Tool

    If you want to open excel applications one a device where excel is not installed, you would click on 'Excel Online' on the main window.



    Further Reading
    1. Email Client-Side Configuration

    2. How to Use Different Domains to Point single Hosting

    3. There is a Problem With the Information You Have Provided

    WAMP Server Is Offline Due to Internal Error

    After a long while, I have decided to check some personal web projects I did during my college days. Most of them were done in PHP and My SQL. To test them I need to open them either in the local server (WAMP server I am using) or upload the entire files to a web server. Since it takes more time to upload entire project (it includes a lot of images too) to my web hosting account, I decided to check them on Local Host. Though everything looked fine, WAMP server showed offline. Its icon in system tray showed in red color as you can see in the image below.


    I opened the program by clicking on it and tried to put it online by clicking "Put Online'.


    This operation failed and I got an error messages "Could not execute menu item (internal error) [Exception] could not perform service action; The service has not been started" with an OK button.


    So the reason for this problem is revealed. Some of the essential services needed to start this application are disabled on this computer. It is possible that my PC optimization efforts might disable them because I do not use phpMyAdmin regularly. To fix the issue, we need to find the essential services and restart them. The essential services which are required for the smooth working of WAMP server are wampapache and wampmysql. We can enable them from services page and once we start them, WAMPSERVER will be back online. Steps to restart stopped wampapache and wampmysql services are explained below.

    1. Type services.msc on Windows search box and click on it to open

    2. On this page look for wampapache and wampmysql. On my PC, both of them were disabled.


      Hint: W is at the last of the English alphabet. So you may look at the end of the list to find both wampapache and wampmysql.


    3. Double click on each one and choose automatic for Startup type. If you do not want to slow down the system while booting, you may choose "Automatic (Delayed Start)". Don't forget to press Apply after selecting the startup type.


    4. Now the start button is activated. You should click on the start button to start the service.


    5. You must do the same procedure on both wampapache and wampmysql. Once, both of them are started, WAMP icon will be shown in green color (means online).


    Once the application is online, we can run PHP applications on it. Instead of directly uploading dynamic websites to web hosting space before testing, you may run them on localhost using WAMPSERVER and continue all testings. Once the testing phase is over and all errors are fixed, you can upload the files to web hosting space.

    Related Tutorials
    1. How to Configure Email Client With Godaddy

    2. This Domain is Already Assigned to another Account

    3. Guide to Setup Free Email Account With Godaddy

    4. Free Online Website Safety Checkers