Few Important Points to Keep in Mind While Opening a Savings Account

When it comes to committing transactions with a financial institution, a business mostly relies on its savings account. The extra cash that you earn needs a safe and secure destination, and there’s no better place than your savings account. The financial instrument is hardly any point of research for a usual business owner, although it reflects a significant portion of his investment portfolio.

Factors that can help you to pick the best savings account:

Minimum cash balance

Public sector banks offer a zero balance account or allow you to maintain a much lower minimum cash-balance worth 1000 INR. On the contrary, the private sector banks require you to maintain a minimum balance worth 5000 INR. Experts advise you to opt for a bank that doesn’t require you to block a substantial amount. However,if you choose to go with private sector banks, you must enquire about the fees that they will charge for a low-balance account.

Rate of interest

In comparison to your other investment options, savings bank accounts offer a much lower interest. A majority of banks are still yielding lower interests since interest rates got deregulated by the RBI. You must check out the maintenance clauses prior to opening your savings account with a private bank that offers higher interest rates.

Banking network

Web-based applications have dominated the present generation and are now making their presence felt within the banking sector. Mobile banking and net banking are two of the latest features that come with a savings account. However, you might need to visit your bank’s branch for a certain transaction. So, it is in your best interest to open your account with a bank that has branches spread all over India.

Ancillary fees and service charges

Many financial institutions levy charges for some of their regular services per year. These services include issuing cheque books beyond their free limit, duplicate PIN number and cards besides SMS alerts. You must acquire knowledge on these charges while applying for your savings account. You must opt out of a low-cost account that levies hidden charges in favour of a transparent account.

Deals on debit cards

Multiple debit card deals are offered by banks in their attempt to keep competition at bay. These debit card deals may range from insurance benefits to cash-back offers. While some of these banks are known to charge yearly charges of their cards, while the rest set a waiver for individuals that transact business worth over their minimum threshold limit. For example, certain platinum and gold debit cards are issued by banks. These cards yield a range of benefits for a yearly charge.

Banking facilities at your doorstep

To help you cope with your busy lifestyle and hectic schedules, banks are extending cash collection facilities at your doorstep. Demand drafts are also being delivered by some banks at your doorstep, but you’ll need to bear a cost for such services. In their attempt to serve high net-worth customers, certain dedicated relationship managers are maintained by the priority banking verticals of some banks.

Prior to opening your bank account,it’s truly important for you to check and evaluate all factors that drive a consumerist setup. It will help you to establish a long-term relationship with your bank that’s vivid and lucrative.

All you need to know about top-up personal loans

Thinking of getting a top-up on your existing personal loan? Most lenders provide applicants with top-up personal loan offers, usually after completion of a particular period in the tenure. Depending on your repayment history, you can get a much-reduced interest rate on your top-up personal loan. Besides, you can also alter your tenure when you opt for a top-up.

Top-up personal loans can help a great deal if you need urgent access to funds. While a normal loan usually takes about 6-8 business days to reach your bank account, a top-up on your existing personal loan will take just about 24-48 hours to get disbursed. So, if you’re facing an emergency, a top-up loan is easily your best bet.

Things to know before applying for a loan top-up

Before you get your top up personal loan offer from your lender, here are certain things that you should know.

Having a Good Repayment History

A good repayment history with your current lender is crucial to get your top-up loan approved. The importance of this point can of course, not be understated. Perhaps the most dominant parameter that influences the approval/rejection of your top-up loan application is your repayment history, for this is the only way the lender can assess your ability to repay. So, if you wish to apply for a top-up, make doubly sure that your repayment history with your lender is neat.

It sure does look like it when you apply for a top-up, but not quite it yet.

Your Credit Score

Your credit score (a score out of 900 that indicates your credit worthiness) should also be at an acceptable level if you wish to get a top-up on your existing loan. Note that your repayment history is a crucial parameter that impacts your credit score. There are of course other parameters as well – your monthly debt to income ratio, your Credit Utilization Ratio and the number of debt sources in your name. While such is the case, in case you have a long relationship history with the lender and your repayment history has been impressive with just a handful of instances of overdue payments (note that there should be no instances of defaults), you can get your top-up personal loan approved even if your credit score has taken a hit.

There isn’t an ounce of doubt whether it is possible to avail a personal loan or not. There is no other objective to getting a top-up than while fighting an emergency.

Employment

Most lenders allowing you to apply for top-up loans require you to be actively employed with a stable source of monthly income coming your way. This of course makes sense, as lenders need to know that you can make monthly repayments towards your loan. To determine this, lenders will ask for your most recent income documents – it doesn’t matter even if you’ve switched jobs and just started work with a new employer.

Altering tenures

Lenders allow applicants to alter tenures when they provide them with personal loan offers on top of existing loans. As an applicant, you can choose a tenure based on your repayment capacity. Longer tenures attract lower repayments while shorter tenures have comparatively higher repayments. However, opting for a short tenure would mean lesser payment towards interest, while longer tenures attract higher interest payments.