HDFC Bank increased cost on one of its most popular services

“We’ve updated rates for InstaAlert services via Email and SMS as of 1st January’22,” said a flash on HDFC Bank’s website.

“If you were paying Rs. 3 every quarter for InstaAlert SMS service, you would now pay only 20 paisa + GST per SMS,” according to the HDFC Bank website. The email alert will stay free indefinitely.”

Customers of HDFC Bank can utilize the bank’s InstaAlerts service to keep track of all financial and non-financial transactions communicated to them through SMS or email. When you sign up for InstAlert, you’ll receive notifications about things like bill due dates, salary credit, insufficient money, and more.

“InstaAlert Service does not include debit/credit card transaction alerts provided in accordance with regulatory requirements or Net Banking transaction alerts.” Customers who have not signed up for InstaAlert will continue to receive these messages for free, according to the HDFC Bank website.

The SMSs a customer receives connected to debit and credit transactions are billable under the InstaAlert programme, according to an HDFC Bank employee. SMS communications requesting balance information and promotional texts from the bank are not charged.

Customers can change or unsubscribe from the InstaAlter service by going online.

Here’s how to go about it.

Step 1: Use your Customer ID and Net Banking Password to log in to NetBanking.
Step 2: In the top right corner of the website, click “InstaAlerts.”
Step 3: Select the account number for which the alerts should be de-registered or registered.
Step 4: Choose the type of notifications you want to modify.
Step 5: After you’ve chosen your alerts, click Confirm.

Points to consider

Please confirm that your mobile number with country code and e-mail address are correct and up to date in order to receive alerts.
Debit transactions made with ATM / Debit Cards are not included in the ‘Debit transaction larger than set limit’ alerts.
Alerts for debit transactions made through Net Banking will be sent to the cellphone number listed in your contact information for security reasons.
If a mobile number is not supplied, the alert will be delivered to the e-mail address listed in the contact information.

You can choose from the following types of InstaAlerts SMSs:

Axis Bank increased the cost of SMS alerts last year. “Value-added SMS price is now charged at Rs 5 per month (levied quarterly at Rs 15 per quarter) on subscription basis for specific value-added services (VAS) alerts,” according to the Axis Bank website (s). This will be in effect until June 30, 2021. Beginning July 1, 2021, a 25-paise-per-SMS SMS alert price will be charged based on actual usage/SMS delivered to the subscriber, with a monthly cap of Rs 25. Charges are not applied to promotional SMS sent by the bank or OTP alerts.”

What the Reserve Bank of India has to say about SMS alert fees

To combat fraud, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has instructed banks to send SMS alerts for every transaction. The regulator has also instructed banks to impose fees based on real consumption. Charges based on real usage, according to the RBI, would encourage fairness in customer transactions.

“Given the technologies available to banks and telecom service providers, banks should be able to charge clients based on how often they receive SMS alerts. As a result, banks are advised to use the technology available to them and telecom service providers to ensure that such charges are levied on all customers on an actual usage basis, in order to ensure reasonableness and equity in the charges levied by banks for sending SMS alerts to customers “In a notification issued in 2013, the RBI stated.

Once monies are credited in the beneficiary account, the RBI has mandated banks to provide required SMS alerts for debit card transactions, ATM cash withdrawals, NEFT and RTGS transactions; these are non-chargeable. All other transaction alerts are fee-based, according to RBI regulations.