Opening a new Bank Account-What is the Best Bank and Debit Card

[mikael_schiffer]

Hello guys, i need to open a new bank account. Most probably i will have the opportunity to open a Salary account from HDFC. Some of their agents have been hovering around the office these past few days.

I dont have issues with minimum account balance. I am okay with Rs10,000 or Rs15,000 min balance requirements. What i dont want is interest fees, maintenance fees, withdrawal fees or such nonsense.

Anyways , what i want from my Bank and its debit card are

1) The card should, if possible, look fancy. Maybe allow me to put my own picture in it
2) I shop from sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, PayTM.. mostly Indian sites..so freebees and low cost/no cost EMIs would be nice.
3) I would like to be able to pay my phone bills (recharge) easily from my phone
4) It should allow me to do international transactions, like buy stuffs from Alibaba, Banggood etc etc
5) Easily let me buy apps from Google play store directly (dont like the redeem code process for SBI)
6) Let me buy Steam games directly, do in-app purchases in games like DOTA2 (again, i dont like redeem code nonsense)
7) PayPal compliant... not so necessary, but maybe for the future.

 

[kaz]

I'm using an HDFC salary account with no minimum balance or any charge on ATM transactions. You also get good cashback (rewards points) on using the DC/CC. There is option of no-cost EMI on all shopping sites for 3/6 months EMI tenure.

The features which I like the most are:
I can set daily or per transaction limit for both national and international transactions.
I can disable or enable international transactions through net banking. And you don't need to wait even a minute for these changes to reflect.

Recently, my account was upgraded to HDFC Classic which gives few more features in addition to the already existing ones.

 

[Nerevarine]

For non salary account and if you are under 25, try Axis Bank Youth account, as far as I remember, it gives all the benefits of proper axis bank with zero balance.
Also, enquire in your area if there is any new bank branches that are opening for ICICI, new branches can give u zero balance accounts. I myself possess one and use it as a burner account for international transactions (balance around Rs 500) always.

 

[whitestar_999]

Kotak 811 has zero balance requirement & gives 6% interest for balance above 1lakh plus it also gives a debit card which can be enabled for international online transactions.