Banks in India cannot upgrade their customer’s account into a premium account without their consent, according to Bank of India-backed Abhay Credit Counselling Centre chief credit counsellor VN Kulkarni.
If customers’ accounts have been upgraded into a premium account with high balance and imposed charges for not maintaining minimum funds in the account, the banks will have to refund the customer.
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Kulkarni was quoted by The Times of India as saying that the consent of a customer is absolutely necessary before converting to an account into a premium account with higher balance requirement.
According to banks, the upgrade is not done automatically, but is performed by bank employees to achieve their targets to open a certain number of premium accounts.
The banker would upgrade those accounts which meet the criteria for premium accounts.
Kulkarni, however, said this is not proper practice.
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By GlobalData"There is no way that the banker can know on how long the individual is going to maintain the required balance," he added.
