Public sector lender Bank of Baroda on December 1, 2023 launched the BoB Parivar Account for savings and current accounts. Under the banner of ‘My Family, My Bank,’ this account consolidates all the bank accounts belonging to members of a single family under a single head.
This feature eliminates the need for individual accountholders to maintain a minimum balance for each account. “While each account will be operated independently by the primary account holder, the maintenance of quarterly average balance (QAB) is recorded at the group/family level, thus eliminating the need to maintain QAB in every single account,” the bank said in a release.
The account has two variants – Savings Account and Current Account. The BOB Parivar Savings Account accommodates a minimum of two and a maximum of six members. Eligible family members of the BOB Parivar Savings Account segment would include the spouse, parents, children, parents-in-law, daughter-in-law, and/or son-in-law.
Further, this account would enable all family members to relish a host of attractive benefits, which are normally provided in accounts maintaining higher balances, the bank said.
Elsewhere, the BOB Parivar Current Account Segment is open to proprietorship, partnership, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), and private limited companies acting as group companies or sister concerns.
For the unversed, current accounts are designed for business transactions and for business entities who have to make large number of withdrawals every single day. So these accounts don't accrue interest on deposits.
Says Ravindra Singh Negi, chief general manager – retail liabilities and NRI Business, Bank of Baroda: “By grouping together individual accounts of a single family or associated companies, our customers will be greatly rewarded with superior benefits, which are normally provided in accounts maintaining higher balances.
In the BOB Parivar Account segment, all individual family members will gain from the overall balances maintained together.”
Both the BOB Parivar Savings Account and the BOB Parivar Current Account come in three variants – diamond, gold, and silver – each with distinct pooled quarterly average balance (PQAB) requirements, where higher balance gives the accountholder higher associated benefits.
For savings accounts, the minimum quarterly balance are as follows: For diamond variant, it is Rs 5 lakh and above, while for gold and silver, it is Rs 2 lakh and above, and Rs 50,000, respectively.
The BOB Parivar Account offers many benefits, including concessional rate of interest on retail loans for saving accountholders, waiver of processing charges on retail loans (excluding TCR/valuation charges), concessions in locker rent charges, dematerialised AMC, and manual NEFT/RTGS charges (while digital transactions remain 100 per cent free).
Accountholders also receive a waiver of DD/PO charges, concession in cheque book charges, and a waiver of charges on the collection of outstation cheques (where only postage and out-of-pocket expenses are payable for collection).
The BOB Parivar Account also offers digital banking services encompassing Netbanking and BobWorld app, among others. Additionally, the bank provides a fully loaded credit card (subject to conditions) with the first year being completely free, limited to two partners or authorised persons of other bodies authorised to operate the account.
