SBI vs Nainital Bank Limited: Children’s Savings Accounts

SBI vs Nainital Bank: Children’s Savings Accounts

SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan while Nainital Bank allows minors to open a Regular Saving Account through a parent or guardian.

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 Nainital Bank Limited

Nainital Bank does not offer a dedicated children’s savings bank account though its Regular Saving Account can be opened by a minor.

Regular Saving Account

The standard savings account from the bank, the account can be opened on behalf of minors by the guardian.

Features

  • The account is meant to cater to the savings needs of the people by providing a safe place to keep their money
  • The bank has made it easy to operate the account without too much of a fuss
  • The minimum balance for accounts with chequebooks is Rs 500 for rural and semi-urban branches and Rs. 1,000 for urban and metro branches. For non-chequebook accounts, the balance is Rs. 200 (rural), Rs. 300 (semi-urban), Rs. 400 (urban) and Rs. 500 (urban) locations. Details of whether the same balance requirements apply on the Regular Saving Account for minors is not available on the website as of November 2018

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)
  • Nainital Bank Website: www.nainitalbank.co.in
  • Headquarters: Nainital, Uttarakhand
  • Call Centre Number: +91 120 240 1083