SBI Card on Tuesday announced that it will levy a charge of Rs 100 on cheque payments for bill amounts less than or equal to Rs 2000.
A joint venture between the State Bank of India and GE Capital, SBI Card seeks to encourage the use of credit card among its over 4 million customers across 90 locations in the country. The move of disincentivising cheque payment (where the card company incurs additional processing cost) is in line with the government’s digital policy after demonetisation.
The fee will be exacted on transactions starting 1 April 2017.
However, the credit card company said that no fee will be charged on payments greater than Rs 2000, and payments made through SBI cheques.
Payment-related disputes over small cheque payments cause inconvenience to the customers as well, said SBI card CEO Vijay Jasuja according to Business Standard.“We offer various seamless digital modes of payment which we are seeking to encourage, in line with the government’s focus towards digital payments and this step will facilitate the same.”
The CEO also added that there will be no charge on cheque payments on holders of SBI Card Unnati which is targeted at first-time credit card users with the aim to include people into the organised financial stream of digital payments.
Recently, SBI also exempted its customers from maintaining a minimum balance in savings bank accounts, basic savings bank accounts and Jan Dhan accounts, or the accounts opened under the government’s financial inclusion scheme Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana or PMJDY.
