City Union Bank vs State Bank of India: Children’s Savings Accounts

City Union Bank offers a dedicated savings account called Junior India for children. SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan.

Children’s Savings Accounts from City Union Bank

Tamil Nadu-headquartered City Union Bank is the oldest private sector bank in the country having been established in 1904. It offers a dedicated savings account for children called Junior India. It also offers an account for young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years called Young India.

Junior India

The account can be opened for children with ages ranging from 1 day to 18 years

Features

  • The account is operated by the parent or guardian
  • Children above the age of 12 years can undertake transactions at the bank or through ATMs on their own
  • Account holders above 12 years also get access to internet banking (CUB Net) and mobile banking (CUB Mobile) facilities
  • School and college fees can be made free of cost under the Junior India account
  • Online transfer to other City Union Bank accounts through NEFT, RTGS or IMPS is free too
  • The standard KYC documents and proofs are needed for both the child and the parent or guardian to open the account

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

  • City Union Bank Website: www.cityunionbank.com
  • Headquarters: Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu
  • Call Centre Number: 044 7122 5000
  • 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)