If you have a bank account, have you checked how much the maintaining balance is? That is the minimum balance required that if your balance fall below that amount then you will be charged a penalty. My bank accounts have a very low minimum balance so that when I can withdraw a bigger amount when I need money. Compared to other banks that have 10,000 pesos maintaining balance, my bank requires only 2,000 pesos. See the big difference?
My bank's maintaining balance is Ksh. 700 which is equal to seven dollars. Having a minimum balance of lower than this won't result into penalty but the minimum balance can be used to pay for the ATM replacement fee. If someone loses their card or it expires, their card can be replaced after charging the bank account with the seven dollars. Also the minimum balance is a way for showing the account is active and it is easy to suspect any suspicious activity because you can always check any changes in the balance.
Well I would be glad to announce that in the bank where I deposit, the maintenance balance is $0.00. Well this is in a bid to ensure that even small business owners operate their transactions freely, making use of every coin in their account. The only time that you must have at least $5.00, is when you need a new atm card, to replace a lost one or renew an expired one. Also, for you to link your card to your PayPal account you must have at least $3.50 in your account, which to me is fair enough.
There are also ATM accounts that offer zero maintaining balance like BPI easy saver where you only need to provide an initial deposit of $5 of which $4 is credited to the account while $1 is collected for the ATM car. However, there are downsides to it like you get charged 1 cent for every withdrawal and it also doesn't earn interest. I think it will all depend on one's purpose for opening an account. If your purposes is to simply use it for spending, then low maintaining accounts should be fine. Accounts with high maintaining balance usually have passbooks with them and are intended for savings purposes so they appeal to people with more or less stable financial status who won't need the funds for regular purchases.
My bank too requires 10,000 bucks per month. And that can be seriously damaging as well. You have to be seriously keeping the money to avoid surcharge of lack of not keeping the balance. And this means you have to make sure to keep the balance through monthly savings. I think for those who are into salaried income should be thinking about it. That seems to be the way to go. I have tried this and it works for me.
My bank account is a senior account and I am not required to keep a minimum balance. I am really glad I don't have to because that would be difficult for me to do. I have brought it down to the wire a few times. I try to keep some money it though always of course.
There are digital accounts which does not demand bank account's maintaining balance. There is a demand of Center Bank (the hand which manages bank laws) which forbids digital bank charges tax in digital bank account.
My bank account also operates the same way. The only difference would be that I need to have Ksh 800 in my bank which is equivalent to $8. It covers the ATM card replacement. However if the balance stays there for so long without any other transactions, the account may become dormant. 6 months of inactivity is all it takes for an account to become dormant. Therefore, I need to to keep those transactions going because if not, I have to pay a reactivation fee in order to use my account in future.
