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Non-Residents Indians (NRI) Account Benefits
By Vipul Jain | 02 Dec, 2025
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Are you living abroad and still want to manage your finances in India? Well, this may sound complicated, but there are ways in which you can do this in a much simpler way. If the NRIs want to connect to their roots through finances, then Indian Banks also offer them many perks to enjoy. They can open NRI accounts in India and enjoy its limitless benefits. They get tax benefits, advantages, tax exemptions, and more.
In this blog, we have shared the details about the NRI bank accounts, their types, and their benefits. You can read them all and choose the right NRI account as per your requirements to maximise the benefits.
Key Takeaways
- There are three types of NRI accounts: NRE, NRO, and FCNR accounts.
- Interest earned on the deposits of NRE and FCNR accounts is non-taxable in India.
- You can deposit funds in foreign currency in FCNR accounts and avoid exchange rate issues.
- There are various benefits of these accounts, such as tax benefits, minimal balance requirements, joint accounts, easy access, etc.
What is an NRI Account?
A Non-Resident Indian account refers to a bank account opened by an NRI, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), or Person of Indian Origin (PIO) in India. These accounts are opened at banks or financial institutions that are authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Many banking services are provided to the NRIs through these accounts, such as they can deposit their income earned in a foreign country or India.
These accounts can be used by NRIs to make investments, send money to family, pay bills, save, and much more. There are three types of NRI accounts, and each of them has its own benefits. These accounts also help in managing the income Tax for NRIs.
How Many Types of NRI Accounts?
Three different types of NRI accounts provide many benefits to them in managing their finances:
- NRE (Non-Resident External) Savings Account: This account is opened by NRIs for managing their foreign earnings in India.
- NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary) Savings Account: This account is opened by NRIs to manage their income earned in India.
- Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) Deposit Account: These accounts are opened by NRIs who want to maintain a fixed deposit in India.
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Consult an Expert TodayWhat are the NRI Account Benefits?
NRI accounts offer many benefits and help NRIs, OCIs, and PIOs with their financial needs. Here is the list of those benefits:
1. Better Interest Rates
In most cases, the banks offer better interest rates on the NRI accounts as compared to the resident accounts of Indians. Apart from this, there are many NRI bank accounts that offer an income tax exemption on the interest earned on their deposits. It helps the NRIs to get the maximum returns from their investment.
2. Insurance and Loan facilities
There are various banking and insurance facilities that you can avail yourself of with your NRI account in India. Most of the banks and insurance companies provide lending and insurance services to NRIs who have operating NRI bank accounts.
3. Convenience Benefits
With NRI accounts, NRIs can easily manage their finances from anywhere in the world by using the mobile banking option and internet banking. Hence, they are known to be convenient and smooth for international transactions. These accounts help in reducing the complications attached to the cross-border activities.
4. FCNR Deposit
With the help of an FCNR account, NRIs can deposit their funds and hold them in foreign currency. As this account has the benefit of depositing the funds in foreign currency, the NRI can earn in various currencies and save those earnings in Indian Rupees without worrying about exchange rates.
5. Safe storage of funds
Similar to all other bank accounts, NRIs can also save their funds in their NRI accounts safely and securely.
6. Minimal Balance Requirement
Most of the Indian banks allow the NRI to keep their funds in their NRI accounts with a minimum balance requirement without thinking too much about the maintenance fees. You can check the bank's policies on minimum balance, as it can vary by bank.
7. Repatriation Advantages
The NRE and FCNR account allows the NRIs to fully repatriate the amount. It means you can transfer all of your deposits and the interest earned on them to your foreign bank account with no conditions attached. The NRO accounts also provide the advantages of repatriation, but they have some terms and conditions.
8. Currency Conversion
With NRI accounts, you can easily conduct transactions in foreign currencies. You can easily manage your funds with the NRI accounts and use all your foreign income or savings without stressing about currency conversion rates. It comes as one of the benefits of an NRI account, but you can also invest and hold in different currencies using the same NRI account.
9. Joint Accounts
The NRI accounts allow individuals to open joint accounts. There are two options for you to open a joint account: either you can open it with an Indian resident relative on a "survivor or former" basis, or you can open it with another NRI on a "either or survivor" basis. For opening joint accounts in India, NRIs have to submit a Power of Attorney.
10. Tax Benefits
The NRE and FCNR accounts provide many tax benefits to the NRIs. If any NRI opens an FCNR or NRE bank account in India, then they don't have to pay any taxes on the interest earned on their deposits. In case of NRO accounts, there will be taxes applied on the income earned from the deposits in your bank account.
11. Easy access to Indian Investments
It is considered one of the best benefits offered by the NRI bank accounts. NRIs can invest their deposited funds in various financial assets easily in India. They can even use their deposits to invest in various investment instruments, such as Fixed Deposits, Mutual Funds, Real Estate, etc.
12. Tax Exemption for NRE Interest Income
The NRIs who have an operating NRE account in India can exempt themselves from the interest income generated from their deposits. With this benefit, NRIs can get the maximum returns on investments made in their NRE accounts in India.
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After understanding the benefits of these NRI accounts, you must be wondering about opening them in India. You can seek guidance from Visament's professionals on opening NRI accounts. We have a team of experts who can help you open your NRI accounts at affordable prices. You can complete the process from the comfort of your home.
We have personalised services for the NRIs, which we customise according to their requirements. You can also avail many other services like passport, visa, PIO to OCI conversion, etc. The experts of Visament have very good knowledge about these services, and they are available 24/7 to assist.
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Frequently Asked Questions
An NRI can face several disadvantages including financial challenges, tax consequences, and regulatory obstacles. An NRI is not allowed to open new accounts in popular investment options like Public Provident Funds and NSC, they also face the challenge of currency fluctuation, and some banking services in India are restricted for an NRI.
The account you should open depends on the source of your income and financial goals. An NRE account is a good choice for those NRIs who wish to invest in India and repatriate foreign earnings, the interest earned in the NRE account is tax-free and there are no limits on the repatriating funds. On the other hand, the NRO account is good for those NRIs who earn income in India such as rent, dividends, etc. The interest earned in an NRO account is taxable and there is a limit of $1 million per fiscal year for repatriating funds.
Yes, it is mandatory to convert to an NRI account if you wish to move abroad. You need to convert your resident savings account to a Non-resident ordinary or an NRO account to manage your Indian income and to send your foreign earnings to India. It is required by the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). If you fail to do the same, you may face penalties and may be forced to pay a fine of up to three times the amount in your savings account.
No, you cannot have both a resident and an NRI account simultaneously. This is because the FEMA Act doesn’t allow NRIs to have savings accounts in India. So, you must convert your resident account to an NRI account if you are an Indian resident and became a Non-resident Indian (NRI). You can either close your resident account or get it converted into an NRO account.
No, OCI and NRI are not the same thing. OCI stands for Overseas Citizen of India while NRI stands for Non-resident Indian. Every Indian citizen who stays outside India for any purpose temporarily or long-term is an NRI. In contrast, a foreign national of Indian origin who is registered as an OCI cardholder is an OCI. Both these terms refer to people of Indian origin who stay outside India. However, both have different statuses of citizenship and rights.
NRE or Non-resident external accounts have several limitations. NRIs are not allowed to deposit money that is earned in India into an NRE account, there may be restrictions on how much and how often can an NRI withdraw money from an NRE account, It doesn't permit domestic transactions, and the value of deposit may vary due to currency fluctuations.
