Facilities Available to NRI Account Holders

The Chief regulatory bank in India, the Reserve Bank of India, is constantly creating means and ways to make banking more and more convenient for bank account holders. The NRI banking category is also extended a wide range of benefits and facilities that makes it easy for Non-Resident Indians to manage their funds, in both, their Non-Resident Ordinary Rupee (NRE) as well as their Non-Resident External Rupee accounts (NRE). Here are the facilities you can get with your NRI bank account.

1. Internet Banking facilities

NRI internet banking is one of the most basic facilities you can get with your NRE and NRO savings accounts. This is the most important and fundamental facilities available to NRI bank account holders because it can help them easily manage their bank accounts in India while residing in a country, thousands of miles away. With the click of a few buttons, you can order cheque books and bank debit and credit cards, create fixed deposits, make market investments and assign nominees and so on and forth through the internet banking facility.

2. Fund transfer facilities

Banks recognise that Indian residents may be based in any country across the globe and may still have financial obligations towards their family or businesses in India. This is why NRI banking services also entails easy and quick fund transfer facilities. You can easily send funds from your NRI bank accounts to regular as well as other NRI accounts through net banking. Typically, you can transfer sums of various international currencies such as EUR, GBP, JPY and different dollar currencies like USD, AUD, CAD, and SGD into NRI bank accounts. Apart from net banking, sums can be transferred through different mediums such as Western Union Money Transfer, Money Gram and Xpress Money, to name a few. However, you need to check if your bank provides these money transfer services. Thanks to digital banking, funds are credited into the beneficiaries’ accounts within just a few hours.

3. Loan and overdraft facilities

Say you wish to purchase a car or a home in the foreign country you are based in, but are in need of a loan to facilitate the purchase. You can easily apply for a loan against the sums parked in your NRI bank accounts. If you have a fixed deposit with your bank, you can also apply for overdraft services. Moreover, applying for the loan or overdraft facilities does not include robust documentation or application processes. You can do it easily through the already available NRI online banking facility.

4. Depository services facility

If you find the Indian investment market more profitable than the investment market of the country you are living in, you can always avail the depository services facilities offered with your NRI bank account. Banks provide depository facilities which make it possible for you to invest in mutual funds, shares, government bonds and different kinds of money market instruments available in India. Once again, you can use your NRI net banking account to make your investments.

5. FCNR facilities

Once you’ve saved enough money, you can also think of utilising the FCNR NRI services provided by banks. You can create a fixed deposit in foreign denominations without worrying about currency fluctuations. The applicable FD interest rate applies throughout the FCNR deposit tenure and you don’t stand to incur a loss even if the price of the foreign currency falls upon maturity.

Final word: So, if you are planning to move abroad, ensure you open your NRI banking account before moving. Some banks also allow you to open the account online through digital banking.