Information about bank accounts, FD, RD, PPF, SSA, interest rates, KYC, ATM rules, and government banking schemes explained simply.
Kamala, 76, stopped going to her bank branch after standing in a queue for an hour to submit her pension life certificate last November. Her son assumed she now had to rely on him for every withdrawal. She did not. Since 2017, RBI has required banks to make specific arrangements for senior citizens and differently…
Loans given by India’s scheduled commercial banks stood at ₹229.95 lakh crore on 30 September 2026, up 19.38% from a year earlier, according to RBI’s fortnightly statement released on 15 October. Deposits rose 17.83% to ₹283.96 lakh crore. So bank credit growth is again running ahead of deposit growth, and the gap shows up in…
Priya, a teacher in Pune, tries to withdraw ₹10,000 from another bank’s ATM on 16 October. The machine whirs, no cash comes out, and an SMS says ₹10,000 has been debited. If this has happened to you, RBI rules are on your side: when an ATM shows cash not dispensed but your account is debited,…
Before you close a bank account, tick off five things: move auto-debits and SIPs, update your salary and UPI links, empty the balance, return or destroy unused cheques, and check whether a closure charge applies. Most people trip on the first and last. A forgotten EMI mandate can bounce and cost a penalty, and closing…
Myth: once you ask the bank for a stop payment of a cheque, you are legally safe. Fact: the bank will refuse to pay the cheque, but the person holding it may still be able to file a cheque bounce case against you. The Supreme Court has held more than once that a cheque returned…
Myth: a zero-balance account is a stripped-down account with no cheque book, no net banking and strict limits on every transaction. Fact: since 1 April 2026, RBI rules require commercial banks to give a Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) account holder a free cheque book with at least 25 leaves a year, internet and mobile…
Step one: decide how you will pay the bank. That choice matters more than most people expect, because a demand draft of ₹50,000 or more cannot be bought with cash. Demand drafts are still widely asked for: college admission fees, rent deposits, government tenders, court payments and some property deals. Yet the rules on cash,…
Myth: your bank pays savings interest only on the lowest balance of the month. Fact: since 1 April 2010, savings interest in India is worked out on your balance at the end of every single day. Many people still keep money idle “until the 10th” or rush deposits at month-end because of a rule that…
Step 1: keep your PAN card and phone ready. Step 2: sit in a well-lit room in India. Step 3: answer a bank official’s questions on a live video call. In short, that’s video KYC, which banks now use to open accounts and update KYC without a branch visit. Officially, it is called the Video-based…
The rule is simple: a bank account opened with just an Aadhaar OTP, with no branch visit or video call, is a limited account. It can hold no more than ₹1 lakh, take no more than ₹2 lakh of credits in a year, and must be upgraded to full KYC within 12 months or the…