Know about Basic Savings Deposit Bank Account

September 20, 2016 Finance Talk Valli Sarvani No comments

Basic Savings Deposit Bank Account (BSDBA) is different from normal savings bank account. There is no need to maintain minimum average balance with this account. That means no penalties will be levied even if you do not have any minimum balance in it. Even zero balance savings account has similar features with BSDBA in maintaining zero balance, it differs with some other features.

Banks provide flexibility for some accounts to maintain zero balance for some accounts. For instance, salary accounts of employees for selected corporates. But, under BSDBA, all individuals can maintain zero balance in their accounts.

Normally the basic savings deposit dank accounts are opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme. However, any individual aged above 10 years can open BSDBA in any bank of his or her choice. But the holder need not have any other savings bank account in that bank. He/she needs to close the existing savings bank account if he/she wants to open a BSDBA within 30 days from the date of opening such account.

Yet, a customer is free to open other accounts like recurring deposits, fixed deposits etc. The guidelines for opening a BSDBA are applicable to all commercial banks including foreign banks that have branches in India.

Debit cards for this account will be offered free of charge i.e. there will be no annual fee on the cards. If the account is opened under PMDJY scheme, Rupay card will be provided for them. Account holders will have an accident insurance cover of Rs.1 lakh and life cover of Rs.30,000. Furthermore, they are eligible for getting an overdraft facility of Rs.5,000 after having transactions for at least 6 months. But, only one person per household is eligible to use this opportunity by providing Aadhar number.

All the account holders of basic savings deposit bank account can have many number of deposits, but the total credits in that account should not exceed Rs.1 lac in a financial year. Similarly, withdrawals and transfers should not exceed Rs.10,000 and balance at any time should not exceed Rs.50,000. The number of withdrawals should not exceed four – including ATM withdrawals. There will be no charges for not operating these accounts as well.

Image Credit: Narendra Modi / CC BY-SA 2.0