In 2020, many banks launched special senior citizen fixed deposit (FD) schemes offering higher interest rates for a specified tenure. However, these term deposits are offered for a limited time period.
Here’s a look at how the interest rates of the State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank and compare. Which of these three major banks is providing the best interest rate for special senior citizen deposits.What are these special senior citizen FDs?
These FD schemes were launched by banks to provide higher interest rates to senior citizens amid the falling interest rate scenario as these are the people most dependent on the interest earned from FDs for regular income.
SBI Wecare Deposit for Senior Citizens
The special “SBI Wecare” Deposit for Senior Citizens is a term deposit scheme in which an additional premium of 30 basis points over and above the existing 50 basis points will be paid to Senior Citizens on their retail TD for tenors of ‘5 Years and Above’ only.
This “SBI Wecare” deposit plan has been extended until March 31, 2022, according to the SBI website.
HDFC Senior Citizen Care FD
According to the HDFC Bank website, “An Additional Premium of 0.25% (over and above the existing premium of 0.50%) shall be given to Senior Citizens who wish to book the Fixed Deposit less than 5 crores for a tenure of 5 (five) years One Day to 10 Years, during special deposit offer commencing from 18th May’20 to 31st Mar’22. This special offer will be applicable to new Fixed Deposit booked as well as for the Renewals, by Senior Citizens during the above period. This offer is not applicable to Non-Resident Indian.”
ICICI Bank Golden Years FD Rates
These are the details of ICICI Bank’s special senior citizen FD as per its website:
- Resident Senior citizen customers, will get an additional interest rate of 0.20% for limited time over and above existing additional rate of 0.50% per annum
- The additional rate will be available on fresh deposits opened as well as deposits renewed during the scheme period.
- Eligible FD tenure: 5 years 1 day up to 10 years
- Applicable duration: 20th May, 2020 to 08th April, 2022
- Applicable on single FD of amount
- Premature withdrawal: In case deposit opened in above scheme is prematurely withdrawn/closed after, on or after 5 years 1 day, the applicable penal rate will be 1.20%. In case the deposit opened in above scheme is prematurely withdrawn/closed before 5 years 1 day, the prevailing premature withdrawal policy will be applicable.
- All other features of term deposit as well as terms and conditions shall remain unchanged and are applicable for the above scheme also.
Should you invest?
If a senior citizen is looking for reasonable return as well as safety of his/her principal money, then there are other options as well that are offering a higher interest rate as compared to these special FDs.
For instance, senior citizens savings scheme (SCSS) is currently offering 7.4 per cent per annum. The interest rate differential between SBI FD and SCSS is 1.20 per cent. SCSS also allows premature withdrawal albeit by paying some penalty. The tenure of the SCSS scheme is also five years.
Other post office schemes such as five-year post office time deposit is currently offering 6.7 per cent and Post office monthly income scheme account is offering 6.6 per cent per annum.
A senior citizen should evaluate all the features of the scheme and not just the interest rate before making any investment.