Catholic Syrian Bank vs State Bank of India: Children’s Savings Accounts

Catholic Syrian Bank allows parents and guardians to open its various savings accounts – Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum – on behalf of minors. SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan.

Children’s Savings Accounts from Catholic Syrian Bank

Catholic Syrian Bank is one of the oldest banks in the country having been established in 1920. The bank does not offer a dedicated children’s savings bank account but its Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum savings accounts can be opened on behalf of minors by their parents or guardian.

Blue Savings Account

This savings account comes one step up the InstaDigital Savings Account but offers lesser number of features than the Gold and Platinum accounts.

Features

  • Offers up to 5 free use of other bank ATMs
  • Allows up to Rs. 40,000 in withdrawals from ATMs per day
  • The Blue Savings Account comes with the RuPay Platinum Debit Card
  • Minimum quarterly balance needed is Rs. 1,000 for urban areas and Rs. 500 for rural regions

Silver Savings Account

The Silver Savings Account is one step up the Orange Savings Account and comes with the following features.

Features

  • Unlimited free access to any ATMs in India
  • Allows up to Rs. 75,000 in withdrawals from ATMs every day
  • Users get 20% discount on locker rentals
  • The Silver Savings Account comes with the VISA Platinum Debit Card and offers all its benefits
  • Minimum quarterly balance needed is Rs. 5,000 for urban and rural areas

Gold Savings Account

The Gold savings account from Catholic Syrian falls between the Silver and Platinum accounts. Most of its benefits are similar to the Silver account.

Features

  • Unlimited free access to any bank ATM in the country
  • Allows customers to withdraw up to Rs. 75,000 from ATMs every day
  • Users get 30% discount on locker rentals
  • The Gold Savings Account comes with the VISA Platinum Debit Card
  • Minimum quarterly balance requirement is Rs. 25,000 for urban and rural areas

Platinum Savings Account

The top savings account from Catholic Syrian Bank portfolio.

Features

  • Users have unlimited free access to any ATMs in India
  • Customers can take out up to Rs. 75,000 from any ATM every 24 hours
  • The customers also get 50% discount on locker rentals
  • Platinum Savings Account comes with the VISA Platinum Debit Card like the Silver and Gold accounts
  • Minimum quarterly balance requirement is Rs. 1 lakh for both urban and rural branches

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 Pehli Kadam account

Reference Facts

  • Catholic Syrian Bank Website: www.csb.co.in
  • Headquarters: Thrissur, Kerala
  • Call Centre Number: 1800 266 9090
  • 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)