Reactivate inoperative bank accounts - Fusion - WeRIndia

Normally, people open saving bank accounts if they want to save money or for crediting salary.  Sometimes, banks ask the borrowers to open an account to process the loan.

The account holders will forget after they finished their transactions. They may not use these accounts later.

Such accounts are treated as inoperative after no transactions have been performed for a long-time i.e. one year.  

The transactions include deposits, withdrawals, cheque issuing or depositing, net banking, third-party transfer, automated payments etc. However, interest credited by the bank to your account is not considered as a valid transaction.

As per the instructions of the RBI, the accounts which do not perform transactions for a specific period should be categorized to stop fraudulent activities.

And, the communication will be intimated to the account holder two to three months in advance before turning its status to inactive or dormant.

You cannot make any transaction after your account has been deactivated. You have to reactivate it to bring into function.

If your account is deactivated, then here is a process to reactivate it:

• Submit an application for reactivation with necessary ID proof along with passbook at your bank branch.
• You have to provide a reason for not using the account.
• After completing KYC formalities, your account will be reactivated within 24 hours by the bank.

Normally, banks do not charge any fee for reactivating your account. Yet, if there is no minimum balance, you have to pay the specified charges for not maintaining the balance.

Maintaining a minimum balance is essential. So make it a habit despite the type of your bank account. This is because, if your salary is not credited to your bank account for three months, then your salary account will be treated as normal saving bank account; so you have to maintain a minimum balance in it (generally salary accounts can have zero account balance). This will be helpful if you forget to close your salary account in the event of moving to a new job.

Your inoperative accounts do not affect your credit score. However, it is better either to use a bank account in between if you need it, or to close it if you feel there is no need of it.

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