SBI vs Dena Bank: Children’s Savings Accounts

SBI vs Dena Bank: Children’s Savings Accounts

Note: Dena Bank along with Vijaya Bank has been merged with Bank of Baroda, effective from April 2019, and all details of products and services referred to here are for the original Dena Bank, prior to the merger.

SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan while Dena Bank offers the Dena Minor Savings Scheme for children. But since the merger, you can only access the Bank of Baroda accounts and not the Dena Bank ones.

Children’s Savings Accounts from SBI

Pehla Kadam

This account is meant for all children and may be opened jointly with a parent or guardian.

Features

  • There are no minimum balance requirements in this account
  • There is a limit of Rs. 5,000 on daily transactions. Transactions such as bill payments, prepaid mobile top-ups have a limit of Rs. 2,000 within the Rs. 5,000 limit
  • SBI offers an auto-sweep option with this account called SBI Multi Option Deposit Scheme (MODS). If the accountholders opt for this, then any amount above Rs. 20,000 in the account is put in a term deposit. The MOD is initially for a sum of Rs. 10,000 and in Rs. 1,000 multiples thereafter. As is common for banks, there is no clarity on the website if the auto-sweep facility kicks in if the account has a balance of Rs. 30,000
  • There is a cap of Rs. 10 lakh on the maximum balance in a Pehla Kadam account
  • The kid is eligible to get a specially branded chequebook and passbook, and also a personalised debit card with her own photo

Note: The links to specific accounts may not work. The above data was taken from internet searches. We have put the links here in the hope that they work some day. Even the WayBack Machine shows an error when we tried to pull a page from July 5, 2017.

Pehli Udaan

The account is meant for kids above 10 years of age. They are allowed to open and operate the account on their own.

Features

  • As mentioned, any child above the age of 10 years who can read and write, may open the account in her own name without the need for any parent or guardian
  • Except for the age criteria, the other features of the Pehli Udaan account are same as for the Pehla Kadam account

Children’s Savings Accounts from Dena Bank

Originally called Devkaran Nanjee Banking Company Ltd., the bank was supposedly the first to offer a saving scheme for minors, among other things. It offers the Dena Minor Savings Scheme for children and its basic standard savings account (from a generic reading of the website).

Dena Minor Savings Scheme

The account can be opened by literate children above the age of 10 years in their own name.

Features

  • The Dena Minor Savings Scheme can be opened jointly or under the child’s own name
  • No chequebook is issued and the kid has to withdraw money using withdrawal slips

Basic Saving Bank Account

From a generic reading of the web page, it seems the savings account is available to all Indian residents, which by its very definition should include minors below the age of 10 years also. There was no mention of a standard savings account in the bank’s earlier website and as a reader, one can presume that this may be the only standard savings account they offer, which in practical sense, seems highly unlikely as this account seems more like the ones opened for non-banked masses under Government directive.

Features

  • This account has no minimum balance requirements
  • Customers get the facility of chequebooks and a debit card
  • The bank allows only four withdrawals every month though there is no limit on the number of deposits
  • If the account is opened under simplified KYC norms, then the accountholder has to show KYC documents or show application for such a document
  • A person having a Basic Saving Bank Account cannot have any other savings bank deposit with the bank

Reference Facts

  • State Bank of India Website: https://sbi.co.in and www.onlinesbi.com (net banking)
  • Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
  • Call Centre Number: 1800 425 3800, 1800 112 211, 1800 110 009 (pensioners only)
  • Dena Bank Website: www.bankofbaroda.in (new) and www.denabank.com (original)
  • Headquarters: Baroda, Gujarat (BoB)
  • Call Centre Number: 1800 258 44 55, 1800 102 44 55 (BoB)