Banking in USA

ll employers pay the employees in the form of a cheque, which can be cashed or deposited in your account or transferred electronically to your account. Please avoid carrying large amounts of cash as we do in India generally. All expenses like rent, telephone, electricity, gas bills can be paid by cheque and there are no queues. All these payments can be mailed to the utilities directly. For routine payments one should have a CHECKING ACCOUNT and a SAVINGS ACCOUNT which is used to retain portion of the salary as savings. Saving Account pay interest and checking accounts donot pay any interest. Checking Account is like the current account in India. Please note that minimum balances should be maintained in Saving Account to get interest on the money you have in the Savings Account. You have access to your funds anytime anywhere in both the accounts.

Normally Banks in the US issue automatically a debit card, which can be used for payments and also as an ATM should you need to withdraw cash. Normally people use Debit Cards / ATM and donot carry large amounts of cash since ATM network is widespread and common in the USA. (You donot have to wait in long queues in fromt of ATMs). Like in India ATM / Debit Cards have your PIN number and your account can be operated from your bank’s ATMs or from the affiliated Bank networks /ATMs. For more information about Internet Banking, Investment Funds etc., check with your local Bank Representative.

How to open an Bank Account in the USA?
You should have a social security number to open a Bank Account in the USA. Please check with your employer and friends in the USA as to which Bank they are using and what are the services and features offered by the Bank. US Banks operate under strict regulations and one need not be concerned about the safety of US Banks. Please visit the Bank and meet the New Account Manager / Representative before you open the account. They will help you through the paper work and please take your passport and Social Security Card. Other identification like Employer Identity card would also be useful. Then you would be issued a temporary cheque books until your personalised cheque book comes to you by post/courier to the address you would want them to sent it. Shops and Supermarkets will not accept your tempororary cheques since they donot carry your address and other details. So hold on to large scale purchases till your personlised cheque book comes. It takes at the maximum a week for your cheque book to come. So please use cash for essential purchases.

Sending Money to India
Please use legal and authorised methods like Wire Tranfer, Western Union Money Transfer or personal cheques to sent money back to India. Please donot use the HAWALA method to transfer money to India. Please donot ever send cash by US Post or courier to India. Please follow the following steps before you send money to India.

1. Please open an NRI account with a reputed Bank in India.

2. Please open an Bank account for your parents / wife /Brother in the same Bank.

3. If you send your personal cheque it takes 15-21 days for monies to be credited to your account.

4. If you wire the monies to your NRI Accounts or to other accounts in India, the money reaches in 24 hours. But a fee of $ 10 USD is charged at both ends in case the banks are different. If it is the same bank, charges are lesser. Before wiring the monies, please get from your bank in India the exact instructions for wiring the monies and do double check the account numbers before you wire the monies.

5. You could also use authorised money transfer Unions like West Credit Union to transfer the money to India. This reaches India in 48 hours.

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