Federal Bank vs State Bank of India: Children’s Savings Accounts
Federal Bank offers two savings accounts called Young Champ and YuvaMitra for children and young adults. SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan.
Children’s Savings Accounts from Federal Bank
Federal Bank offers two savings accounts called Young Champ and YuvaMitra for children. Details of whether its standard savings accounts can be opened for children are not available on the website.
Young Champ
The account is for all children up to the age of 18 years whether resident in India or abroad.
Features
- The account needs an average monthly balance of Rs. 1,000
- Children below 10 years can only open the account if the parent or guardian acts as the authorised signatory while kids above that age can open the account in their own name and operate it independently
- The child also gets a specially designed debit card with a daily ATM or POS transaction limit of Rs. 2,500 with the Young Champ account
- Charges on demand drafts for educational purposes are waived off up to a sum of Rs. 50,000
- The bank offers reward points if the account holder or her parent or guardian opens a recurring deposit
- Internet banking comes with a view-only facility
- The accountholder also gets free email and mobile alerts and free standing instructions to debit account of parent and transfer the same to that of the child
- The account cannot be opened online and the child, parent or guardian has to visit the branch
YuvaMitra
The account can be opened by any kid after they have passed class 10 and up to the time they have attained their professional degree or diploma.
Features
- There is no minimum balance requirement for the account
- The young adult gets a chequebook of 20 leaves a year and a debit card
- The daily cash withdrawal and POS limits are both Rs. 50,000 for the YuvaMitra account
- Accountholders get free internet banking, mobile banking and email alerts
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
- Federal Bank Website: www.federalbank.co.in
- Headquarters: Aluva (Kochi), Kerala
- Call Centre Number: 1800 425 1199
- 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)