One of the perks of jobs is to get a salary account in a bank where your company banks. The advantage of these salary accounts is the no limit on minimum accounts and certain other privileges which you otherwise do not get as an ordinary bank account holder. You do not need to pay any annual fee on debit cards and some banks also waive off charges applicable when making a draft. Given such preferential treatment, in case of a change in employment, the bank discovers you are no more a privileged account holder if they do not receive salary transfer for three consecutive months.

Although employers try and ask new employees to open an account in a bank with which they bank, you can opt out of such schemes. Yes, you would lose the preferential treatment that a bank extends to you when you have a salaried account with them. Sometimes the bank may be the same with the new employer, yet you may lose the partiality because unless you and your new employer explicitly state, the bank does not link your account as a salaried account.

This happens mostly because every month employers share the list of new recruits and their bank details as much as they share details of those who have left the organisation for banks to decide what to do with such accounts. To enjoy the preference, make sure you update the bank of your changed employment status as well as get your new employer to inform the bank that you work with them now and hence to treat your account as salary account linked to the new employer.

Update records

As soon as you change jobs, make sure you inform banks and financial institutions where your employment status would include add-on benefits. Some banks are content with a letter from employer; some seek for the official ID or joining letter. Some banks seek a gazetted officer’s stamp on the new employment proof. Some just trust your communication to note the same. In case of no communication, banks try and inform you about the change in the account’s status from corporate-salary account to an ordinary savings bank account, which means all rules on minimum balance and maintenance charges on the account will apply.

It is common for people to move jobs and open new accounts and seldom close older accounts. It may seem not a big issue to keep accounts with the hope of closing later. It is best to have limited bank accounts for it helps you manage the basic requirements of minimum balance at one of them than at many of them. Unless necessary, you don’t need more than one savings bank account. Many people seek locker facilities at banks, which in turn may require you to have a savings bank account to open a locker account. No harm in having an account for such instances, any more accounts should be purely given a thought and should justify a reason to exist.

olmdesk@outlookindia.com