The recent bank fraud case of Punjab and Maharashtra cooperative bank has raised many eyebrows on the reliability of a bank. It has become a case where the depositors of the bank are not able to withdraw or deposit their own money, bringing their daily transaction to a grinding halt. The government and finance ministry of India is taking no concrete steps until now to provide relief to the depositors of PMC bank. This is a big lesson for all of us, and we need to be careful about where we are putting our money. Till now, we thought that the bank would be the safest place to keep our money, but this incident has somewhat made us skeptical about it. Therefore, if you are planning to open a bank account to keep your money safe, here are some of the checklists that you must go through before signing in for an account in the bank you have selected.
Decide how much money you want to deposit
Before opening an account, determine how much money you want to deposit in the bank. Many banks ask for a minimum balance amount to keep your account active while some do offer zero balance account. If your income flow is regular and you can afford to maintain the minimum balance after all transactions, then it suits your needs. However, if your income is irregular and maintaining minimum balance is tough for you, then you can choose the zero balance account where there is no requirement of keeping a minimum amount.
Type of bank
The type of bank that you select for opening an account also matters a lot, mainly after the PMC scam. You normally get three types of option in banking which includes PSU banks, Private sector banks, and Cooperative banks. You must do a thorough background check of the banks before opening an account in any one of them and check for its credibility. Though most of the banks are hit by some sort of scam, including PSUs, choosing the right bank has become quite a tough one. However, PSU and private banks are a better place to choose than cooperative banks.
Services
While opening an account, you should also see what type of services the bank is offering to you. Commercial banks and PSUs have a wider network and have many other facilities like core banking, SIP scheme, locker facility, and services like merchant banking. Some cooperative banks do have such services, but they do not have a wide network as they limited number of branches in selected cities or towns only. On the other hand, you will get branches and ATMs of private and PSU banks all across the country in all towns and cities.
See the fine print of other charges
While opening the account, go through the fine print of the account opening documents very carefully. Check whether there is a limit on your debit card transaction or any cap on the monthly withdrawal of money from your account. See if there are any auxiliary charges on your online bill payment, NEFT or RTGS transaction. When all these and other things are clear to you, then only go-ahead to open the account with the bank.
