Seeing the increasing NPAs (Non-Performing Asset) of the public sector, the Finance Minister decided that he would privatize most of the PSU Banks (Public Sector Undertaking). Due to this news, there has been a lot of turmoil in the banking industry last year. Axis Bank acquired the retail division of Citibank and SBI bought the majority stakes of Yes Bank. A lot of aggressiveness has also been seen in PSU banks and relatively small private banks like RBL, IDFC, and Indusind Bank are demanding customers quite aggressively.
Now, due to all this, in which banks you should open a savings account in 2023 or we can say which are the Best Bank for Savings Account in today’s time, we will know all this in this article.
In this article we have analyzed the top 9 to 10 banks in 5 to 6 different parameters. Which will make things clear to you. So, if you are looking for a good bank to open a savings account for yourself, then this article can be very helpful for you because here we have compared all those parameters of banks with each other which are most considered while opening an account.
Best Bank For Savings Account:
Now we are not going to tell you the names of banks directly here in which you can open your saving account. Below we will compare the top 9 to 10 banks of the banking industry with each other on different parameters, after which you will be able to easily decide which is the most suitable bank for you to open a savings account.
![Best Savings Account In India After Analyzing Some Important Parameters Best Bank For Savings Account After Analyzing Different Parameters](https://financebenz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Best-Bank-For-Savings-Account-1024x536.png)
In this article we will mainly compare the following banks with each other –
- State Bank Of India (SBI)
- HDFC Bank
- Kotak Mahindra Bank
- DBS Bank
- RBL Bank
- Indusind Bank
- Bandhan Bank
- Axis Bank
- ICICI Bank
Based Upon Interest Rates:
Banks | Upto 1 Lakhs | 1 Lakh - 10 Lakhs | 10 Lakhs - 1 Crore | 1 Crore + |
State Bank of India (SBI) | 2.70% | 2.70% | 2.70% | 2.70% - 3% |
HDFC Bank | 3.00% | 3.00% | 3%-3.50% | 3.50% |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | 3.50% | 3.50% | 3.50% - 4% | 4.00% |
DBS Bank | 3.25% | 3.00%-4.00% | 3%-5% | 5.00% |
RBL Bank | 4.25% | 5.50% | 6%-6.50% | 4.50%-6.50% |
IndusInd Bank | 4.00% | 4.00%-5.00% | 5.00% | 5.00% |
Bandhan Bank | 3.00% | 6.00% | 6.25% | 6.25%-6.50% |
Axis Bank | 3.00% | 3.00% | 3.00%-3.50% | 3.50% |
ICICI Bank | 3.00% | 3.00% | 3.00%-3.50% | 3.00%-3.50% |
First of all we will talk about interest rates. The interest rates on savings accounts of banks keep changing every day. So we would lay to much emphasis on this data. Almost all banks give you interest as per a slab broadly up to a limit. The more balance you maintain with a bank, the more interest you will get.
Looking at the data in this table, it is clearly understood that new age banks like RBL, Indusind and Bandhan Bank are really aggressive and their rates are broadly better than all the others. SBI’s rates are the lowest, whereas the rates of other banks are broadly between 3% to 4%. Now some people are very fond of zero balance account. Therefore, we have also compared the minimum account balance (MAB) requirement of all these banks –
Based Upon Minimum Account Balance Req.
Banks | Min. Balance |
State Bank of India (SBI) | 0 |
HDFC Bank | 2,500 |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | 10,000 |
DBS Bank | 5,000 |
RBL Bank | 0 - 5,000 |
IndusInd Bank | 0 - 10,000 |
Bandhan Bank | 0 - 10,000 |
Axis Bank | 2,500 - 12,000 |
ICICI Bank | 2,000 - 10,000 |
Along with finding the Best Bank For Savings Account, it is also important for us to find what minimum balance is required to maintain that account. As you know, all these banks have different products for savings accounts also. Broadly Banks offers three different types of savings accounts – Basic, Standard and Premium. Obviously you get better services and products in premium accounts, like debit cards and credit cards, but along with that, the minimum account balance requirement is also quite high.
Therefore, in this table you can see the minimum balance requirement variable of many banks, like RBL’s Rs 0 – 25000, Bandhan Bank’s Rs 0 – 10,000 and ICICI’s Rs 2,000 – 10,000 etc. You will get zero balance account in all the banks but it will be very basic. That’s why we have not mentioned it here. You will get a decent zero balance account in RBL, Kotak, Indusind and ICICI.
Based Upon Charges:
Banks | Free Checks | Additional Checkbook | Debit Card | Annual Maint. Fee |
State Bank of India (SBI) | 10 cheques | Rs 75 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | FREE | 125+ GST |
HDFC Bank | 25 cheques | Rs 100 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Free/Chargeble | 150-600+ GST |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | Nil | Rs 75 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Free/Chargeble | First Year 0, 2nd Year 750 + GST |
DBS Bank | No Limit | FREE | Free/Chargeble | Upto 400 + GST |
RBL Bank | 40 cheques | Rs 50 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Free/Chargeble | NIL |
IndusInd Bank | 30 cheques | Rs 25 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Chargeable | 199 + GST |
Bandhan Bank | 0-unlimited | Rs 75 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Free/Chargeble | Rs. 75+ GST per transaction (Min Balance not maintained) or else NIL |
Axis Bank | 20 | Rs 50 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Free/Chargeble | upto 600 + GST |
ICICI Bank | 20 | Rs 25 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | Rs 25 plus GST (25 Leaf Cheque Book) | 99-150 GST |
Now we will talk about the charges of these banks so that things will start becoming a little more clear. You get unlimited checks for the first year in DBS Bank and Bandhan Bank. DBS is the only bank which gives you unlimited checks even after the first year. Apart from DBS, Indusind and ICICI charges are also quite low.
But all the other banks are broadly charging Rs 75 to Rs 200 for Chequebook. In case of debit card, RBL is giving you lifetime free debit card, apart from that SBI, HDFC and ICICI are charging very less. The charges for everything else are relatively high. So as of now for beginners ICICI, DBS, RBL and Indusind bank are looking better than the rest.
Based Upon Number of Branches And ATMs:
Banks | No. Of Branches | No. of ATMs |
State Bank of India (SBI) | 22000+ | 62617+ |
HDFC Bank | 6499+ | 18868+ |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | 1600+ | 2519+ |
DBS Bank | 378+ | - |
RBL Bank | 507+ | 413+ |
IndusInd Bank | 2015+ | 413+ |
Bandhan Bank | 5722+ | 412+ |
Axis Bank | 5583+ | 10990+ |
ICICI Bank | 5275+ | 15589+ |
When many people open their bank account, a major factor in their mind is the availability of the bank branch. Most of us want that the bank branch should be either near our house or near our office. Although 95% of the work is done via Netbanking and mobile app these days but still having a branch nearby gives you a mental satisfaction.
The more branches and ATMs a bank has, the higher the chances that a branch or ATM will be found near you. In this parameter, new age banks like DBS and RBL Bank are far behind in comparison to other banks. In this, although Bandhan Bank’s branches are visible more than Axis Bank’s. But the thing to note is that majority of their branches are in North, East, so if you are looking to open an account in the Northeast region than Bandhan could be a very good pick for you.
Obviously no one can beat SBI Bank and HDFC Bank in this parameter. Axis and ICICI also have many branches and ATMs across India. So if this is the most important parameter for you we would suggest you to stick with the bigger banks.
Based Upon Net Banking and App Experience:
Banks | App Experience (Out Of 10) | Net Banking Experience (Out Of 10) |
State Bank of India (SBI) | 8 | 8 |
HDFC Bank | 9 | 9 |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | 9 | 8 |
DBS Bank | 8 | 6 |
RBL Bank | 7 | 7 |
IndusInd Bank | 7 | 7 |
Bandhan Bank | 6 | 7 |
Axis Bank | 8 | 8 |
ICICI Bank | 10 | 9 |
For those people who use online banking more, we have also compared the experience of online banking and mobile apps of these banks.
But this comparison is completely objective, this rating is based on our experience. Therefore your experience may be different from ours.
We have rated all banks’ apps and net banking out of 10. So as per our analysis ICICI has one of the best app user experience followed closely by Kotak and HDFC. SBI, Axis and DBS Bank also have decent user experience but Bandhan, RBL and Indusind experience is average at best. HDFC and ICICI have one of the best Netbanking experience followed by SBI, Kotak and Axis Bank. So if we talk overall, ICICI has one of the best digital banking experience followed by HDFC and Kotak Bank.
Based Upon Customer Support:
Banks | Phone No. | Ticket | Chat Based | |
State Bank of India (SBI) | 1800 1234 | customercare@sbi.co.in contactcentre@sbi.co.in | No | Via SMS |
HDFC Bank | 1800 202 6161 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | 1860 266 0811 | Yes | No | Yes |
DBS Bank | 1860 266 0811 | Yes | No | No |
RBL Bank | +91 22 6115 6300 | customercare@rblbank.com | No | Yes |
IndusInd Bank | 1860 267 7777 | investor@indusind.com | No | No |
Bandhan Bank | 1800-258-8181 | customercare@bandhanbank.com | No | No |
Axis Bank | 1800-103-5577 | No | No | Yes |
ICICI Bank | 1800 1080 | No | No | Yes |
If you open a savings account, you will obviously face a lot of issues. So in such a situation the Quality of Customer Support Experience of the bank is very important.
In this table we have compared different methods of customer support. If you look carefully, HDFC is the only bank which gives you customer support in every way. In our experience Kotak, ICICI and RBL also have decent customer support. SBI has also improved a lot in the last one year.
Final Words:
So till now we have seen that for Best Bank For Savings Account the interest rates are lower than the old banks like ICICI and HDFC, but they stack up very nicely on other important factors like offline presence, user experience, customer support etc. If you wish to open multiple savings accounts than our suggestions would be stick one account with either ICICI or HDFC and the second one with RBL or Indusind.
If you want to open only one savings account than our suggestions would be to go ahead with either ICCI or HDFC. If your preference is not that your bank branch should be near your home or office than amongst HDFC and ICICI we would suggest to stick with ICICI.
Let us find in the comments section which bank is your savings account and how is your overall experience.