NRI Bank Accounts in India: Help needed to open one.

Hi friends, i need some help in getting to know the basics of getting an NRI account in India and investing. My husband has been working in US as a post doc student for 4 years but most of his savings went towards his family in India. I came here 7 months back after marriage and realized that the one account my husband had in India was closed by my MIL and whatever checks he sent went directly to her about which she hid from me. My husband is planning to relocate to India for a job after a year and we expect to have a child soon. We have a visit scheduled to India soon and i want to open an NRI account and a PPF account in my husband's and my name(a joint account).
Since my husband has very little interest in savings and investments i am on my own to do all this. Can someone here guide me how to go about it ? Do we need to have a relative in India to keep our account active or we can do it Online? I plan to get an NRI account with SBI, can it be a joint account in my husband's and my name?. Can someone tell whether i can maintain it online, if it is a joint account? Since i am a dependent in US i don't have my own account.
Thanks for the patience to go through my post.

Hi Deepshika,

My personal opinion is that if you are sure that u are going to relocate to india after an year then there is no use in opening a NRE account jus for an year.The interest rates are also very low for NRE accounts.Instead when u go to India u can open a joint savings account for which u can send funds from here through Money to India from ICICI.For sending money thru that u need to register with ICICI online.While opening savings account u can go with any bank in India,please make sure they have features like

1) Internet Banking
2) ATMs in all places which helps for easy withdrawal
3) Permitting Transfer of funds online.
4)Payment of utility bills online,which will be easy when u relocate to India

These features as far as i know are provided by Citibank, ICICI.But, U can also check with other banks.

Hope this is helpful to you.

Regards,
Shantha Kasiarunachalam/:

Hello deepshika,
My friend's husband works in citigroup.So I asked him the same questions as we want to keep our money also like this.He suggested me to go to citibank website and there they offer many options to us NRIs.
Like for example: if u want to stay here & keep money in $,u can do it.
If u want to stay here & keep partly in rs u can do it.
If u want to stay in india and keep money in $,u can do that too!!.
For every type they have a different policy and account type.
So I would suggest that u should go through their website.
If u have any doubts post it here & I shall ask him & let u know.But he told me that the website is v friendly and has details.I havent got a chance to go through it still.

good to hear about the citigroups. Can we transfer the money saved in US$ to INR and vice versa. If so, what would be the fee.

Thanks
IM

hi deepshikha,

You can open an nre account with any of the nationalised/private banks...
and the others have already given you ideas..

My point is as an nri you cannot open an ppf account..you have to look at some other saving scheme...like SIP, again ULIP (is your preference as many say that finances and insurances should not be clubbed...)

Circular GSR 585(E) dt. 25.7.03 prohibits NRIs from opening a PPF account. They are, however, allowed to continue to contribute to their PPF accounts opened before becoming NRI only until maturity. An NRI cannot open a new PPF account but he can subscribe to his existing account for obtaining the tax benefit until the account matures