What are a few things that you'd recall when you think of student days? Give us a five if empty pockets topped your list. You know that you aren't the only one. All of us would eagerly wait for that day our parents put pocket money in our accounts and a week later you wouldn't know where the money went.
So, a couple of days after it was declared that the banks in the country collected a whopping Rs 5,000 crore as the minimum balance penalty at the end of the Financial Year 2018, we sought to ask a group of people, who are one among the worst hit by the decision — students. And they were obviously unhappy.
"I'm a college student and I'm obviously broke half the time. So, the banks cutting a penalty from my account is obviously a big deal. I'd lost Rs 250 once. It doesn't sound like a huge sum to many, but it matters to me. It is my father's hard-earned money," says Atul Vinu, a third year BTech student in SRM University, Chennai. "The banks could have at least had prompt reminders," he adds.
Another student Jasmine Jerald, who is pursuing her MBA in Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Chennai, has a solution to the issue. She says that since most students are dependent on their parents for income, they need a zero balance account. "You need to balance college and a social life without going broke within a couple of weeks. I think banks should start a separate privileges account for students that provides zero balance accounts and has easy saving options," she says.
