Deepa Gopalan
ET Intelligence Group

To serve the varied needs of working women, banks have begun offering innovative products. Essentially, these are merely various products that are put into a single basket to make things convenient for a working woman. These products are also available individually, but the likelihood of a person buying all of them would be lower.

Citibank's women's account, for example, has several components - a savings account, a credit card, discounts on loans and an account for your child. While the package sounds attractive on the whole, you must look at each of the components and check if you really need them.

Start with the savings account. The women's account offers a savings account that requires you to maintain a minimum average daily balance of Rs 10,000, unlike Citibank's other accounts, where the minimum balance required is Rs 1 lakh.

With other Citibank accounts with a balance of less than Rs 1 lakh, the customer is not entitled to transact through the branch directly. He will be allowed to avail services only through phone banking or Net banking. However, this condition is relaxed for women and they need to maintain only Rs 10,000 to make use of branch facilities. Having said that, this minimum balance also seems on the higher side, as the limit is far smaller for a lot of other banks.

Once you open a women's account, you will be given a credit card on which the annual fees would be waived for the first year. This again, is not a unique feature as most credit card companies today waive the first year charges. Apart from this, you are allotted a relationship manager. The relationship manager will advise you on where you can invest your money, be it deposits, mutual funds or insurance products. There would be no charge for this advice and the intention of the bank is to develop a relationship with its customers so that they may be able to sell other products to them.

If you open this account with the bank, you may also be eligible for discounts on personal loans, car loans and so on. However, the bank will assess your relationship with them, check your creditworthiness and then sanction such a loan. So you might have to go through the same procedure as you would had you taken a loan from any other bank.

Over and above this, there are other small benefits such as a free critical illness insurance cover of up to Rs 50,000. But here again, you must check the illnesses that are covered. Further, there is also a 'junior package' under which you can open an account in the name of your child and get a debit card for the same.

This account does not require a minimum balance and the parent may transfer funds to the child's account as and when she feels the need. The account also provides for free education insurance up to Rs 25,000. Here, in case of death of the parent account holder, Rs 25,000 will be paid out to the child.

ICICI Bank also offers a similar product, but this product is available only in Andhra Pradesh. The account is in the form of a recurring deposit account wherein you would have to save a sum every month. In addition to this, you get an accident insurance policy at a premium of Rs 60 per annum for a sum assured of Rs 2 lakh.

Like Citibank's junior account, ICICI Bank's account also allows you to open a 'Young Star' account with a minimum balance of Rs 500 along with which you get a free debit card and free cheque book for your child.

Another point is that customers using other banks could create such a bundle for themselves without some official offering from the bank by choosing among the various products made available to them. This, however, might entail different kinds of costs and expenses.

While the package taken as a whole may sound attractive, what needs to be seen is whether all these products are actually required by you and whether you are getting any extra benefits in opening a women's account rather than a simple savings account. Only when the benefits outweigh the costs should one go in for this kind of offering.