Although the purpose of a savings account money is to grow over time, or at least maintain its current value, in many cases if you violate the requirement to maintain a minimum balance it can cost you dearly. Commissions between ¢ 1,500 and the equivalent of $ 10 (about ¢ 5,000) may be debited from your account if the amount left as balance is lower than that agreed in the contract of your savings account.
The press offices and customer service centers of the National banks of Costa Rica (BCR), Popular, BAC San José, Scotiabank and HSBC were consulted on charges they may face the people who have savings balances below the minimum.
With the exception of Banco Popular in Costa Rica, the other four entities have at least one type of account in which there are restrictions or fines charged to those who leave balances low.
For Banco National adult accounts if you less than ¢ 15,000 in the account for a period longer than three months it will become inactive.
“The youth do not have accounts balances and term conditions, but the others do,” said Jessica Soto, Director of Institutional Relations of the National Bank.
In the case of BAC San Jose, it has restricted minimum balance for BAC savings accounts, BAC Premium Savings Account and Youth Accounts. The minimum balance is ¢ 25,000; and if it is less than that you will be charged a fee of ¢ 2,500 per month.
At Scotiabank, the savings account in colones must have a minimum balance of ¢ 15,000, or $ 30 dollars. HSBC, meanwhile, requires a minimum of ¢ 50,000 or $100 for your savings account balance.
The six banks surveyed stated that the payroll savings accounts (which are deposited the wages of workers) have no restrictions and no minimum balance costs.
If the employee terminates their employment with the employer, the money will remain in a bank account, but in some cases lose the privileges of the payroll accounts.
If the bank must transfer the money to another account type, different from today, the customer will be informed of the change and the new conditions. This shall meet the banks either through a phone call, email or a message displayed in his office transactional Internet.
