Getting A Safe Deposit Locker in SBI

For quite sometime I was thinking of getting a safe deposit locker but somehow it kept on slipping down the priority list. I thought it will be better to get one in a public bank as fees would be low comparative to private banks. But there were no availabilities in the banks where I tried. So when a new branch of SBI got opened near my house, I grabbed the chance and went there to ask the availability of lockers. Luckily they had few lockers available. I will share the information and my experience below.

SBI typically offers 4 types of lockers - small, medium, large and extra large. SBI website gives details on each of these. For me, getting a locker involved following:

• Form filling

• Fees for small locker

  • One year Rent of the locker - Rs 934
  • One time Locker Registration Charges of Rs 509/-

• 2 Fixed Deposits (FDs)

  • one of 15K (for 10 years duration )
  • another of 2L (for 3 years duration)

Please note that I had a savings account in the same branch. But still they asked to open 2 FDs in the branch. However it appears, from reading on net, that as per RBO guidelines banks cannot force people to open FDs for the purpose of getting a locker. Read. For me it was not an issue for me as I anyhow wanted to open FDs there.