Gone are the days when living abroad meant staying away a thousand miles from your loved ones. Today the world has become a smaller place with NRI banking services on the rise. With NRI banking services that are offered by many banks today, you can easily, conveniently and quickly make investments and remittances for your family in India. You can also opt for services such as bill payment, avail loans and a lot more. The eligibility criterion to avail these services is also quite simple. You need to qualify as a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) for the same. You are considered as a PIO if you have or have had an Indian passport, your parents or grandparents were Indian citizens by virtue of the Constitution of India or Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955) or if you are married to an individual of Indian origin.
The biggest highlight of the NRI banking services that banks offer to their NRI customers is the online cash remittance. Indians from abroad send money back to their country to either their parents or their families and online money remittance is a very quick and safe way to transfer money from abroad. Also, no matter from which country you are sending in the money, the recipient of the money receives it in Indian currency only. This saves a lot of time and effort for the recipients; he doesn’t have to run from pillar to pillar to get the money converted in the times of emergencies. Previously, the service area of these NRI Banking Services used to be limited and to add to it, the agents used to charge hefty commissions. But with the strengthening of the economy, convenient online money remittance has become common with more and more banks offering these services. With an NRI bank account, you can also make payment of bills to India from anywhere in the world.
You can get access to three types of banking services for NRIs namely Non-Resident External (NRE), Foreign Currency Non-Resident or FCNR (FCNR) and the Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO). Even NRE Deposits are an attractive product of NRI banking services. With NRE deposits, you can earn interest at higher rates and also a partial withdrawal of the deposits is permitted. You can also avail of the overdraft facility of up to 90% of the deposit or Rs. 1 Crore, whichever is lower for yourself. You also enjoy tax exemption from the entire deposit that includes the principal as well as the interest.