Bank of Maharashtra vs State Bank of India: Children’s Savings Accounts

Bank of Maharashtra has Mahabank – Yuva Yojana for children in the 10-18 years age group. This is a savings cum investment account as a child can open a savings account and invest in recurring deposits and fixed deposits. SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan.

Children’s Savings Accounts from Bank of Maharashtra

Mahabank – Yuva Yojana

Bank of Maharashtra offers the Mahabank – Yuva Yojana as a comprehensive solution to take care of the savings needs and expenses of young children.

Features

  • Under this, children can open savings accounts and invest in recurring deposits and fixed deposits
  • The savings account has no minimum balance requirements and can be opened with only Rs. 10
  • Children do not get any chequebook until they are over 18 years, but by then the account becomes a standard savings account with minimum balance requirements and other terms and conditions that apply to the standard account
  • The Mahabank – Yuva Yojana account comes with a free debit card but with specified spending limits
  • Account holders can put in standing instructions to transfer money from their accounts to their recurring deposit. In addition, parents can put in standing instructions to put in money from their account to the child’s account
  • Bank of Maharashtra also sanctions education loans to deserving students at the time to admission if they have held the account for over 6 months

Savings Account

The bank also allows parents and guardians to open a savings account jointly with a minor child.

Features

  • The minimum average balance requirements for the Mahabank – Savings Bank Scheme are calculated on a monthly basis. Service charges are applicable if the balance is less
  • The documents needed to open the account (besides the application, of course) are an ID proof, an address proof, two passport-sized photographs and the PAN card or Form 60/61
  • Interest is calculated on the daily balance on a quarterly basis

Children’s Savings Accounts from State Bank of India

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

Reference Facts

  • Bank of Maharashtra Website: www.bankofmaharashtra.in and https://www.mahaconnect.in/jsp/index.html (net banking)
  • Headquarters: Pune, Maharashtra
  • Call Centre Toll-Free Number: 1800 233 4526, 1800 102 2636
  • 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)