Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Overdraft Facilities and Benefits _{Last Updated : 27 Feb 2020}

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a scheme launched by the government of India to provide hassle free access to various financial services such as deposit accounts, remittance, credit, insurance, pension and much more to the lower section of the society. This financial inclusion scheme was launched in 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The scheme was launched with the purpose of offering equal financial access to everyone. The scheme comes with various benefits such as accident cover, life cover, overdraft facilities, no minimum balance and much more.

Overdraft facility and benefits under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

Overdraft facility is a facility provided by the bank to its account holders. Overdraft facility allows the customer to withdraw money from their account even when they have zero balance in the account. Overdraft facility is usually offered for the withdrawal of a limited amount of money.

Like mentioned before, the account holder can avail the overdraft facility from an account under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme. An overdraft facility can really help the account holder during sticky financial situations where cheques are involved. Consider an example where you have given a cheque of Rs.2,000 to A but you have zero balance in your account, during such time your cheque won’t bounce due to the overdraft facility. Overdraft also helps when ATM withdrawals are made during an emergency without knowing the balance in the debit card

Given below are important details about the overdraft facility offered under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme.

• The overdraft facility is offered to account holders under the scheme
• An overdraft facility of Rs.5000.00 is available to any one account holder per household. This means that only one member of a particular family can avail the overdraft facility. Usually female members are favoured for the overdraft facility.
• The facility will be available and can be used by the customer only after six months from the date of the opening of the account under the scheme.
• The account holder should have a good transaction record to avail this facility.
• The account holder should also have a good credit history.
• The amount that can be availed in an overdraft facility is upto INR. 5000.00. This amount can be extended to a maximum of INR.15,000 by the bank if the transaction history of the account holder has been remarkably good in the past six months and if they have maintained a good balance in the bank even though the account allows zero balance.
• There is a nominal interest rate that is charged to the account holder on availing the facility of overdraft. Usually the interest rate in India is between 12%p.a. to 20%p.a. which is set by the bank.