Savings and Investments

Top banks today offer different types of bank accounts that don't require the customer to maintain any particular minimum balance or deposit every month. State Bank of India (SBI) offers the facility of opening a zero balance account in the form of a Basic Savings Bank Deposit, Digital Savings and Insta Savings accounts. Axis Bank offers a basic saving deposit account and Axis ASAP savings account. HDFC Bank BSBD or basic savings bank deposit account is also a zero balance account.

Post Office Investment scheme: Recently, the minimum amount of annual deposit in Sukanya Samriddhi accounts was slashed to Rs. 250 from Rs. 1,000.

If you are looking to invest your money in safe savings instruments, fixed deposits are always the best choice, say experts. Fixed deposits or FDs are secure fixed income instruments, which offer guaranteed returns.

India Post, the postal system of the country, offers several savings schemes which not only require modest contribution but also offer attractive investment return.

Fixed deposit interest rates: Fixed deposits or term deposits offered by banks are popular among customers because of the simple reason that they fetch higher interest rates than other savings schemes.

A five-year tax-saving fixed deposit in State Bank of India (SBI) fetches you an interest rate of 6.75 per cent. The deadline for filing income tax returns (ITR) for assessment year 2018-19 is round the corner (July 31). If you did not make any tax-saving investments in the last fiscal, you should make some wise choices this year to invest your money in tax-saving schemes like fixed deposits for tenures of five or 10 years.

The minimum amount of annual deposit in Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana accounts has been slashed to 1/4th of the original amount that was required. Earlier, rules required customers to pay a minimum of Rs 1,000 annually to maintain this account for girl child. However, according to the latest changes in rules, customers are required to make only a minimum annual deposit of Rs 250 in Sukanya Samriddhi accounts.

Fixed deposit (FD) interest rates of non-banking finance companies are more attractive compared with those of banks. Bank fixed deposits (FDs) are secured by the Reserve Bank of India up to Rs 1 lakh. This means that even if a bank goes bankrupt, each depositor will get this sum.

PPF interest rate for the quarter ending September 2018 is fixed at 7.6 per cent per annum. The interest on PPF accounts is compounded yearly, which means that every year, interest is added to your principal amount.

India Post, government's postal system, which also deals with banking services, offers to its customers the option of recurring deposit (RD) accounts and monthly income scheme (MIS) accounts.

State Bank of India (SBI)'s fixed deposit interest rate of 6.75% is lower than that of IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank on a five-year FD.

The best interest rates on recurring deposits (RDs) are offered by small finance banks, niche lenders which lend to the under-banked of the society but can also be used by mainstream depositors.

Fixed deposits or FDs, which offer higher interest rates than savings bank accounts, are not only offered by leading banks like State Bank of India (SBI) but also by small finance banks and post offices across the country.

If you want to withdraw money from EPF kitty for constructing a house or for marriage, EPFO lets you withdraw money from EPF account.

Interest rates on small savings schemes like public provident fund (PPF), national savings certificates (NSC), senior citizen savings schemes (SCSC), kisan vikas patra (KVP) and sukanya samriddhi accounts, among others, are decided every quarter by the government.