For keeping valuable items, such as jewellery, and important documents safe, most of us like to avail the facility of a bank locker. We prefer to take the locker facility in a branch near our house. However, at times you may find that the bank doesn’t have any locker available in that particular branch as they may already be taken.
In such a situation, if you want to open the locker in that particular branch, you can register yourself with the bank’s locker wait list. As per RBI’s regulations, banks are required to maintain a wait list for allotment of lockers. Every application received for allotment of a locker should be acknowledged by the bank and given a wait list number.
Also Read | The fear of flying at Mount 50K
The locker facility is given on a first-come-first-serve basis. So, if someone gives up their locker facility and your name is there on the waitlist, you become eligible for it.
To avail the facility, you need not have an account with the bank. Banks generally ask you to open a fixed deposit (FD) with them along with the locker facility.
RBI regulations allow banks to ask depositors to open a fixed deposit equivalent to the rent of three years and charges to break open the locker in case of any eventuality. The bank will provide an acknowledgement of the FD to be kept as a security deposit. You can give the bank standing instructions to adjust the rent against the interest accrued in the FD.
You are required to operate your locker regularly or the bank can cancel the allotment and open the locker, irrespective of whether you have paid the rent or not. However, the bank will first send a notice.
Customers classified as having a medium-risk profile should operate the locker at least once in three years, while high-risk customers should operate it at least once a year. Banks classify their customers in different risk categories from low to high depending on various parameters such as financial or social status, nature of business activity and the location of customers.
