Nri Banking - What You Need To Know

By Author: Kirthy Shetty
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As an NRI you must be toiling hard to earn more to be able to meet your expenses and save that extra bit for your loved ones back home. When transferring money back home, you might need an NRI bank account and services of a remitter to ensure that your hard earned money reaches safe hands. With an increasing number of Indians moving abroad for work or study NRI banking has witnessed a steady boom in the past few years.

More and more people are taking advantage of NRI banking facilities for saving as well as for investment purposes. If you're a Non Resident Indian planning to open an account in an Indian bank, you might want to have a quick insight into what is NRI banking all about.

To begin with, a Non Resident Indian is a person who is an Indian citizen, or is of Indian origin and stays abroad for employment, for business or vocation, or for education. NRI account service is available with a number of Indian banks; both private and public. If you're looking for a remitter to transfer money in India, the first pre-requisite is to open a Non Resident Indian bank account.

An NRI account is usually of four ...
... types, NRE Saving Bank a/c / Current Accounts, Fixed Deposits in Indian Rupees, NRO accounts (Rupee accounts for crediting income in India ), or a Fixed Deposits in Foreign Currency. A Non-Residential External (NRE) Savings Account provides you with a debit card that allows easy money transfers. While an NRO account enables you to manage local rupee funds that are earned in India through rent, pension, dividend, and so on.

If you're looking for a fixed deposit that enables you to earn returns on foreign currency earnings, you can go in for a FCNR fixed deposit account. An FCNR account can be opened in five different currencies viz., US dollar, Pound Sterling, Euro, Jap Yen, Canadian Dollar, and Australian Dollar. While an NRO account is basically meant for rupee funds generated in India. For those planning to open a NRE or a FCNR you can even go for a joint account with another NRI. While NRO accounts can jointly be held with an Indian Resident.

Talking about the remittance services, there are a number of Indian banks that offer an instant transfer facility to ensure quick and easy money transfer. You can even avail the online remittance facility with one to five days of transfer time. And, if you aren't looking for quick transfer, you can remit through Draft / Cashier's Cheque / International MO, or Foreign Currency Cheque with a clearance time of about seven to twenty eight days.

Many banks offer round-the-clock customer service for easy accessibility of banking features. This also cuts down effort involved in running to the bank, reduces paper work and ensures easy transaction of fund. While planning to opt for NRI banking facility with an Indian bank, make sure you do a research to find about the credulity and the reputation of a bank. Most importantly, compare all the services, interest rate and choose a bank with a reasonable transaction fee.

Kirthy Shetty,
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