A couple of decades ago, drawing money from the bank involved filling of long forms and waiting at the bank. For those traveling to far-flung places (when it was not feasible to carry too much cash), the traveler’s cheque seemed to be the only worthy option. One would have to go to their home branch and get the cheque made. Later, when they needed the cash in the course of their travels, they would visit the nearest branch and encash the cheque. With the advent of debit cards, all such inconveniences were done away with. This brought down the number of time people spent on banks. Other than this obvious advantage, there are many other benefits of debit cards. Unfortunately, most people are not aware of those.
In this article, we talk about 10 such benefits.
1. Prevent debt accumulation
With a debit card, you will only be able to spend the money which you have. This means that there is no debt accumulation as you cannot spend more than what you have. Thus, if you have a spendthrift attitude, try to use your debit card more often as this is an efficient budgeting tool.
2. Free insurance
Debit cardholders are eligible for free personal and accidental insurances. The cost of the insurance premiums is taken care of by the bank. If the debit cardholder meets with an accident or untimely death, his family should take the initiative of applying for claims. Some debit cards also go the extra mile of providing travel insurance to the cardholder.
3. Debit card EMI
Contrary to popular expectations, these days most banks extend the option of EMI payment to debit cards as well. The idea here is that once your account balance crosses a certain threshold, you can opt for the option of debit card EMI payment. That way, the entire sum is not deducted from your account at one go. Instead, the shopping portal or retail outlet takes money from your account little by little.
4. Cashback
Most debit cards provide users with cashback when they shop at popular retail outlets. When a customer shops using the debit card, the shop shares a part of its profit with the bank in the form of commission. The bank transfers the same to the person making the purchase is cashback.
5. Bonus points
Similar to the concept of cashback is that of bonus points wherein customers are rewarded for using their debit cards. Certain brands offer better bonus points as compared to others. Similarly, the variant of the debit card will determine the bonus points accumulated. Some debit cards allow the user to carry forward the bonus points to the next year as well.
6. Gifts on redeeming points
When a cardholder accumulates points, the bank allows him or her to express its worthiness in terms of amount. That way, the debit cardholder can proceed to claim gifts that are of equal value to the points. Although these gifts are measures taken by banks to lure customers, most customers do not know of these features and miss out on them.
7. Safety assurance
Many people have the misconception that if they lose the debit card, all the money in the account can be withdrawn by the miscreant. However, the fact is that debit cards are extremely safe, and the card’s pin is significant to the user. Without the pin, the thief will not be able to make any transaction with the card. Moreover, in case you do lose a debit card, blocking the same is a simple task.
8. Cash deposit
Most people know that having a debit card allows them to withdraw cash from an ATM. But they do not know that the same card allows them to deposit cash in the bank as well. There is special cash depositing ATMs across the country where this facility is available to all debit cardholders. The facility is available free of cost to the cardholders.
9. Withdrawing money from any ATM
Having a debit card of a nationalized bank allows you to walk up to any ATM and withdraw money from your savings account. You do not have to specifically look for an ATM of your bank to avail of this free service.
10. No interest charges
Unlike a debit card, while using a debit card you are using your own money and not that of the bank. Hence all transactions that are made through a debit card are free from interest charges and most other forms of hidden charges.
Thus, as you would have realized, by not knowing these interesting details about your ATM card you were missing out on the benefits. Being financially literate now, feel free to make the most of the debit card that you own. We hope that we were able to be of help in this transformation.