Are you a freelancer and planning to open a new savings account? Then you have come to the right place. While all banks offer regular savings account to its customers, the life style of a freelancer differs from a salaried individual. As a result, zero balance saving account is the perfect type of savings account for freelancers.
Click here to open a Zero balance account instantly.
A freelancer or freelance worker is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer in the long-term.
Although freelancing is a way to do flexible meaningful work, there are many barriers one must face. These barriers may be mental or physical barriers. The best thing as a freelancer is that they get to work based on their rules. However, the life of a full time freelancer may be risky especially when it comes to the compensation part. Unlike, salaried people, they do not have regular income to fall back on.
Freelancers with skills like software design, writing and management make up half of the marketplace. Freelancers have irregular income and as a result, a zero balance saving account is the perfect fit for freelancers. With a zero balance account, a freelancer need not worry about minimum average balance.
Earlier, a freelancer would have to earn at least above Rs. 10,000 to maintain a minimum average balance of Rs. 10,000. Now, a freelancer can continue to work without having to worry about maintaining a minimum balance amount. The money will continue to earn interest even if the bank balance is below Rs. 10,000.
Find out the interest rates given by the different zero balance savings account.
For e.g. Sita Gupta began freelancing as an interior designer in 2016 after working for a top interior designing firm. Her payment cycle was different for different clients. While few paid after three days after she raised her invoice, many of them paid her after 15 days. As her income was scattered all across the month, she was in a fix as to how she can save her money. She decides to first accumulate her savings in a Savings Account. Rather than putting it into an ordinary Savings Account she decided to put it in a Zero Balance Savings Account.
The benefit that she had was that she was able to withdraw the money whenever she wanted. As she was a freelancer, she had to make sure that a certain amount of money was always kept aside for an emergency arises whether a business emergency or a non-business emergency.
In one year, her business took off and received a number of leads from her earlier clients. She started earning more. With a larger cheque and bank balance, she decided to park money in a recurring deposit or fixed deposit that will fetch her higher returns. As she did not want to take risk, she opened a fixed deposits through her mobile bank app.
Most freelancers experience dry spells and slowdowns in work. There is a lot of uncertainty in income for a freelancer. You can’t be sure if you’ll land 10 new clients next month, or if you’ll lose all your current clients at once. Thus no requirement of a minimum balance gives you additional flexibility over the money you save.
The biggest benefit is that there are no charges absolutely in order to maintain a zero balance account. You can withdraw from an ATM or swipe your debit card without paying any charges.
Read: 9 Charges of savings accounts that you should know about
A few years ago, it used to take many days (about 5 -7 days) to open a Bank account. With the use of the bank mobile apps, now you can open your zero balance account within a few minutes. So go ahead, open your zero balance account and start saving.
To safeguard against the possibility of experiencing problems in the business, every freelancer needs an emergency fund. Your budget will need to incorporate some money saved up for personal expenses when there’s less cash flow coming in, but don’t stop there. An emergency fund should cover a full three to six months’ worth of expenses – even more if you’re a freelancer, since your income scale may differ from that of a salaried employee.
Sita has had her zero balance account with the same Bank for 2 years. She has realized that the experience and flexibility given to her through the zero balance account has reduced the time she has had to spend in day to day banking transactions. Be like Sita.
“Choose the bank that works for you instead of a Bank that makes you work”
Tags: savings account, zero balance savings account, Freelancers