Tuesday 25 September 2018

What is an NRE account? What are its benefits?

Moving abroad for employment is a huge milestone. After persistent effort and rigorous hard work, you finally achieve your dream of settling overseas. However, that is not your ultimate goal. You still have to think about your future regarding family, children, etc.    So, what are your investment options?  

India boasts of a high savings rate. As a Non-Resident Indian (NRI), you might want to consider the options in India as it is beneficial for you and your family back home.  But before divulging the investment options, how do you classify yourself as an NRI? You should have completed staying in the overseas country for at least 182 days to be termed as an NRI. Also, you should possess a PAN card for indulging in any of the investments.

Banks in India offer NRIs plethora of investment options. Before opting for any of     them, you need to have a bank account to carry out all the financial dealings. Under this category, NRIs are presented with 3 choices:    

1) Non-Resident External (NRE) Account
2) Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) Account
3) Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) Account
Considering you and your family would need money in Indian currency, the ideal option would be an NRE account.

What is NRE account?

NRE accounts are either savings, current or term deposit accounts. You can keep your foreign earnings in the form of Indian rupees. Also, the interest that you earn through this account is  tax-free. The account holder can also repatriate the money anytime from the account.
 
What are the NRE account benefits that you can enjoy?

1) Tax-free account: The reason an NRE account is a high yielding investment option is because the interest earned through this account is tax-free. Even if you hold some income in India, they would not be counted in your taxable income.

2) Minimum balance: One of the important NRE account benefits is that you can maintain a balance as low as INR 10,000. Considering several banks are offering an NRE account, the minimum balance requirement has dropped drastically over the years.

3) Interest rate: The best part about holding an NRE account is that you earn high-interest rate. This could, however, vary from bank to bank. You receive the interest on a half-yearly basis. If you check the third-party websites, you can conduct a competitive analysis to see which banks offer a high-interest rate.

4) Joint account: Another crucial advantage of owning an NRE account is you can open it jointly with another NRI, i.e. with your wife or your children.

5) Mandate holder: You can appoint a mandate to handle your account on your behalf. He/she could be anyone from your family or your friend. Banks, generally, provide chequebooks and ATM card to the mandate holder. Most of the times, NRIs select their parents as mandate holders.

An NRE account is a unique investment option that offers you a plethora of advantages and  streamlines your finances appropriately.

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