What Is A Salary Account?

By Author: Neha Sharma
Total Articles: 243

"One of the first things that companies do when new employees join them is to open new salary accounts for them. These accounts are special accounts where the salary of the employee gets credited every month. But what is a salary bank account? What is so special about them?

Features of a salary account:

1. This account is a zero balance account. What this means is that there is no obligation on the account holder to maintain any minimum balance in this account.
2. Even though a salary account is opened by the company for the employee, it is managed completely by the employee. The employee can make withdrawals, any other payments, receive payments in this bank account.
3. The employee retains the bank account even after quitting the organization. The salary bank account is not tied down to the organization. However, the bank may convert the salary account to a normal savings account in which case the person will have to maintain minimum balance. If the employee joins another company, the account can again be designated as a salary account.
4. The salary account earns the same interest as a savings account i.e the rate of interest for both these accounts is the same. However, some banks may not give the same rate of interest on these accounts. A few of them treat savings bank accounts like current accounts and do not give any interest while others extend a higher rate of interest as compared to a savings account.
5. A salary bank account has features similar to a savings bank account such as debit cum ATM card, credit card facility, loans, cheque book, passbook, internet banking, mobile banking, SMS alerts, branch services such as depositing cheques, passbook updation, Demand draft services, .
6. A salary account cannot be opened by people who are not salaried, i.e it cannot be opened by self employed professionals or businessmen.
7. An existing savings account can be converted to a salary account to receive monthly salary credits from the company. To convert it, the employee needs to fill up a form and give it to the HR department of the company that he works in. The HR department will submit the same to the bank and the existing savings account will get converted into a salary bank account.
8. Some banks may extend other benefits such as insurance, air travel cover etc as well to salary account India holders.
9. It is important to check all the account details when a salary bank account is created.

Author Bio:- Neha Sharma is a finance student who loves to write in her free time. She has spent considerable time researching about salary account. Through her work, she has given a feature listicle of salary account