Over 80% of Indians now have bank accounts. How many are actually using them efficiently?
Believe it or not, most of us don’t know about the privileges, charges or regulations based on the relationship we have with our banks.
A large number of people have bank accounts now. Yet, having an account does not amount to being financially included.
Average financial literacy scores in India are low – at 11.9 out of 21 as calculated in data submitted by the finance ministry to the Rajya Sabha in January 2019. Financial literacy was defined as a combination of financial knowledge, attitude, and behavior.
Just having a banking relationship with a bank through any instrument doesn’t mean that you’re effectively utilizing the banking system.
Even though most of us are literate, but we still are financially un-literate on various things such as financial instruments, regulations, policies, and benefits.
Though we are acquainted with such things we still don’t have depth knowledge about the basic things that may or had made our banking experience bitter.
For example, the most basic of it is your savings bank account. How many of us know what benefits does your savings bank offer you. What variant of the savings bank account you are being provided.
What changes you have to bear for using it. Are you really making money for whatever savings you have in your savings bank account? Or, what is the annual cost of having a savings bank account?
These are just many of the things that one should be aware of however we often neglect these.
A large population of India, who hold a savings bank account doesn’t know what benefits are they entitled to or what charges they are being debited for the services they are already getting.
Despite a big government push to sign up bank-account holders, many hurdles prevent people from using them.
In an economy where 90 per cent of transactions are still made using cash, visiting a bank can seem like a chore. And even though mobile penetration has increased but not everyone uses mobile banking.
India now has some of the cheapest data plans globally, creating a potential for digital financial services to expand, especially to rural areas that are poorly served by bricks-and-mortar bank branches.
People are still so comfortable with the touch and feel of cash that a major shift will take time to happen. Hence that explains that it will still take time for people to let go of the fear of technology for digital transactions.
So what is Banking QNA?
Banking QNA is a part of the QNA Network owned by ADS.
Originally formed to provide a community place to discuss topics related to Banking, Banking Services, Use Case of Multiple Instruments and Optimal Utilization.
Basically, it intends to provide Aggregated Information from different banks, about their products, services, summarized terms, and conditions, so that people could get educated on the basics.
The goal of BankingQNA is to provide accurate in-depth information that how banking experience can be made better through knowing basic information.