Maximum & Minimum Balance

Certain financial institutions set maximum balance limits on some of their current accounts. For the average customer however, these limits will not usually affect their savings, since maximum balance limits tend to be very high. On the other hand, it is important that business or corporate account holders with large turnovers choose an account which does not limit their incomings and outgoings, nor charge them excess fees for contravening restrictions (see Negotiating Terms on a Current Account). The idea of a maximum account balance is to prevent people using their current account as a savings account, by encouraging people to open a savings account suitable for their excess funds.

Some banks will set minimum account balance limits, requiring customers to keep a certain amount of money in their account at all times or forfeit their account benefits. This is to prevent customers opening an account and failing to utilise it, but also failing to cancel it; the bank or building society must continue to operate the account, perhaps calculating interest and sending monthly statements, which costs them money and time but brings them no benefit.