BEGINNER’S GUIDE ON CHOOSING A CURRENT ACCOUNT

BEGINNER’S GUIDE ON CHOOSING A CURRENT ACCOUNT

With different types of current accounts coming into the picture, it is becoming extremely important to choose the right current account. To do this, you need to be clear as to what you will be doing with the current account. 1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE ACCOUNT: People are often confused between savings and current account, as they both have similar features. But in fact it’s quite easy to differentiate them. Say, you want to save money and have minimal inflows and outflows of cash, then all you have to do is open a savings account. Whereas, if you have regular inflows and outflows, then a current account is the right option for you. Besides, savings account is often considered as a good investment vehicle, whereas the current account, a good transactional vehicle. 2. ACCESSIBILITY: While choosing a current account, you should take into consideration the way you are going to access it: • Mobile application: If you need 24 x 7 access to your current account, then a mobile application will be very useful. • Phone banking: If the branch is far away from your home, phone banking can come in pretty handy. • Branch banking: This can be used if you want to have a face to face conversation with the clerk. 3. INCENTIVES: Some current accounts offer incentives too. For example, if you hit a certain number of transactions in a month for a certain period of time, you become eligible for a bonus. The bonus could be a cash incentive, interest hike on the balance in the account or interest free overdraft. 4. CHARGES FOR RUNNING THE ACCOUNT: Some banks charge a fee for running a current account. This charge may vary from bank to bank. Some banks waive off this fee if the account holder meets a certain criterion. Also, some current accounts do not carry any charge. So make sure to look out for those options before choosing a current account. There may be an additional charge for accessing the overdraft facility. So take a look before you proceed. 5. INTEREST RATES: As the number of transactions in a current account is pretty high, it becomes difficult for the bank to calculate interest on the balance in the account. But, some current accounts pay out a significantly high rate of interest which sometimes even exceeds the interest rate offered by a savings account. However, this is very rare. 6. DIFFERENT TYPES OF CURRENT ACCOUNT: The business current account is very different from a student current account. Both of them serve completely different entities and obviously, the functionality required by different entities will be different. So keeping in mind different users, different types of current accounts are as follows; standard, basic, package, graduate, student, children, and joint current account. All these accounts are made for a specific purpose. The specific purpose of one account cannot be accomplished by another account. So, choose a current account which serves your purpose the best. So now you know what points you should keep in mind while opening a current account. These guidelines will allow you to make a decision as to which current account can get the job done for you.

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