SBI vs Suryoday Small Finance Bank: Children’s Savings Accounts

SBI offers two children’s savings accounts, Pehla Kadam and Pehli Udaan while Suryoday Small Finance Bank does not offer a dedicated children’s account but instead offers minors the option to open a standard savings account as a minor account.

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 Suryoday Small Finance Bank Limited

Suryoday Small Finance Bank does not offer a dedicated children’s account and offers minors the option to open a standard savings account as a minor account. All of the bank’s savings accounts can be opened by a minor under a parent or a guardian. We take a look at the two base variants of the bank’s savings account lineup.

Savings Ujjwal

The account is the most basic of the savings accounts offered by Suryoday.

Features

  • The average monthly balance requirement is Rs. 2,000, though anyone choosing to open an account has to start with an initial deposit of Rs. 3,000
  • Accountholders can choose to keep a fixed deposit of Rs. 10,000 in lieu of the minimum balance
  • The bank offers a higher rate of interest than most other banks for similar slabs of balance. Accounts with balance up to Rs. 1 lakh earn 6.25% per annum and those with balance between Rs. lakh and Rs. 10 lakh earn 7.25%. This is as of March 2019
  • The Savings Ujjwal account comes with a RuPay Classic Secure Chip Debit Card
  • The daily ATM and POS limits is restricted to Rs. 20,000
  • Online money transfers such as RTGS, NEFT, IMPS are chargeable after 3 transactions
  • The bank offers a personal accident insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh with the account

Savings Aditya

This savings account is ranked one step up the Savings Ujjwal.

Features

  • The account has a minimum average monthly balance of Rs. 5,000 and needs Rs. 7,500 to open the account
  • Accountholders can create and keep an FD of Rs. 25,000 if they want to forego the minimum balance requirements
  • The Savings Aditya account also comes with a RuPay Classic Secure Chip Debit Card
  • The limit on daily ATM and POS transaction is pegged at Rs. 40,000
  • Accountholders get 10 free ATM transactions on the bank’s own ATMs and up to 5 on other bank ATMs
  • The accountholder can access up to 10 free RTGS, NEFT or IMPS payment transfers
  • Like with the Ujjwal account, the Aditya offers a higher rate of interest

Note: Suryoday in its savings account page/tabs for each account clearly mentions that all bank’s savings accounts from Ujjwal to Savings Supreme can be opened on behalf of a minor

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)
  • Suryoday Small Finance Bank Website: www.suryodaybank.com
  • Headquarters: Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra
  • Call Centre Number: 1800 266 7711