Women’s Savings Accounts: Are they worth it?

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Women are proving themselves in every sphere of life, be it personal or professional settings. The role of a homemaker is increasing with respect to family finances. Recognising these positive changes and the special banking needs of women, many banks have come up with specially designed savings accounts for them. However, what needs to be analysed is whether these specialised accounts are actually beneficial to women or are just marketing gimmicks?

Let’s review some of the special features of women’s savings accounts offered by various banks and compare them with regular savings accounts:

1. Average balance requirement: As far as average balance requirement is concerned, most of the banks do not provide any special benefits or relaxation in women’s savings accounts. For example, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank have same average balance requirements (Rs 10,000 for metro/urban branches) for their women’s savings and regular savings accounts.

2. Auto-sweep facility: This facility allows you to enjoy the liquidity of a savings account and higher rate of interest of fixed deposits at the same time. Under this facility, you can provide a standing instruction to your bank to create fixed deposits out of the surplus funds in your account. If your account balance falls short of a pre-determined threshold, your fixed deposits will be automatically closed and the proceeds will be credited to your account. However, this facility is not available with regular savings accounts. As the average balance requirements of the women’s savings account and regular savings accounts are mostly the same, opting for the former would let you earn more from your bank account. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and HDFC Bank provide auto-sweep facility with their women’s savings accounts.

3. Higher ATM withdrawal and shopping limits: Usually, banks offer higher limits for ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases for women’s savings accounts when compared with regular savings accounts. For example, ICICI Bank offers unlimited number of cash withdrawals from any bank’s ATM for their women’s savings account. Also, the bank’s daily limit for cash withdrawal at an ATM for such an account is Rs 1 lakh and daily purchase limit at retail outlets and for online transactions is Rs 2 lakhs. On the other hand, the regular savings account comes with an ATM cash withdrawal limit of Rs 50,000 per day and Rs 1 lakh per day for retail outlets and online transactions.

4. Zero balance account for children: IDBI Bank provides a free zero-balance children’s account with their women savings accounts. This account can be used to instil the habit of savings and money management in your child.

5. Insurance cover: HDFC Bank offers free accidental hospitalisation cover of Rs 1 lakh and free accidental death cover of Rs 10 lakhs p.a. with their women’s savings account, which is not available with their regular savings account. Bank of India offers a free group personal accident death insurance cover of Rs 5 lakhs with its BOI Star Mahila savings account.

6. Discounted health check-ups and other offers: Bank of India offers discounted health check-ups with its women’s savings account. The discount can go up to 40% of the prevailing market rates. On the other hand, HDFC Bank offers special discount on interest rates and processing fees on its two wheeler, gold, auto and personal loans to the women account holders. Many banks also provide waivers for other services such as online trading accounts and lockers.

As the offers, waivers and additional features provided by banks for their women’s savings account are not uniform, your decision-making regarding women’s savings account should factor in the utility of such offers. If the minimum balance required for a regular savings account and women’s savings account are the same, going for the latter with some additional benefits will be a profitable option.