SCSS i.e. Senior Citizen Savings Scheme is meant for the senior citizens who are looking for a source of regular income without putting their capital at risk. As it is a government-sponsored scheme, it is safe and reliable.
Senior Citizen FD is a fixed deposit plan offered by Bajaj Finance. It is popular among senior citizens as it offers a high FD interest rate and it is packed with many other features as well. To find a better investment option among them, let's compare them first:
Deposit Limit & Tenor
You can invest a minimum of Rs. 1000 and a maximum of Rs. 15 lakhs in SCSS. It comes with a tenor of 5 years but you have the option of extending the tenor by 3 years. However, this option can be used only once.
The minimum deposit amount for Senior Citizen FD is Rs. 25000 and you can invest as much as you want as there is no upper limit. Also, you can lock-in your deposits from 12 to 60 months as per your financial plans. Therefore, it is clear that the deposit amount of SCSS is capped at Rs. 1500000 whereas there are no such limitations on the investment amount in the Senior Citizen FD scheme.
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Interest Rates
SCSS offers a high FD interest rate that gets revised every quarter. The Senior Citizen FD scheme of Bajaj Finance comes with an FD interest rate of 6.85%. This makes it one of the highest paying FDs in India.
Interest Payouts
With SCSS, you can select an interest payout after every quarter whereas the non-cumulative FD of Bajaj Finance provides the options of monthly, quarterly, yearly, and bi-annual interest payouts.
Therefore, we can see that the Senior Citizen FD is not only more flexible when it comes to tenor but also provides more interest payout alternatives.
Premature Withdrawals
Both SCSS and Senior Citizen FD allow premature withdrawals but you will need to pay a nominal penalty for that. However, the option of loan against the deposited amount that is provided by the Senior Citizen FD is not offered by SCSS.
With Bajaj Finance FDs, you can avail up to 75% of the FD value as a loan and that also without submitting any collateral. This means that you do not have to withdraw your deposits prematurely during emergencies as you will get a loan for managing your sudden expenses.
Interest Calculation
Though both SCSS and Bajaj Finance FD rates are lucrative, you will find that the returns provided by Senior Citizen FD are much more. This is because the SCSS interest gets compounded annually whereas the interest of all the Bajaj Finance FDs gets compounded every quarter.
Let's assume that you want to invest Rs. 1500000 in a 5-year deposit plan. The below table shows the returns of both Senior Citizen FD and SCSS:
Therefore, you can see that the Senior Citizen FD offers better returns after 5-years. Bajaj Finance FD is credible as it has received high credit ratings as a stable investment.
If you do not want to commit all your savings in a single FD then you can split your corpus into smaller deposits by using its multi-deposit facility. This provision allows you to pick a separate tenor for each of your deposits and it also enables you to invest in different FD types at once.
Additional FD rate of 0.10% is applicable for non-seniors if they invest by using an online FD form that is provided on its website. Therefore, the FD scheme of Bajaj Finance is a much better and convenient option for everyone including senior citizens.
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