Ritika, 28, is works for a digital marketing firm. Come women’s day she receives many calls and offers to buy women specific financial products. Do they make sense?
Around women’s day financial companies go into overdrive to sell women-only financial products. This would include women bank accounts, women insurance policies, women loans, women debit cards, credit cards and so on. For them, it makes good business sense.
However, signing up for any of these women specific products, especially without understanding the benefits of the product is a mistake. Let us take the example of women bank accounts. Women only savings accounts come with low opening deposit, lower minimum balance, home banking services, discount on lockers and other rewards and customised features. However, most salary accounts are also zero balance accounts. Some of the other benefits like free cheque books and personal accident covers may also be available with normal savings accounts. Hence it does not make sense to open a new bank account just because it is offering women specific features. Also, women’s debit cards and credit cards are mostly advertised as ones that offer more reward points and cashback for shopping and spas. But more often than not, similar features are available for other credit and debit cards as well. So if you already have a debit card or a credit card and a bank is offering you a women only card, you should not be tempted into getting another one.
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The other women only financial product that is sold is women insurance. Even here, such products hardly offer any different feature than regular health insurance. Every person needs a health insurance cover of at least 5 lakh which needs to be topped up with a Rs 5 lakh cover. If you are opting for such a plan compare the premiums and the benefits. Even when it comes to life insurance, some companies offer women only plans which could be either traditional or ULIP linked plans. If you study these plans closely, you will see that they offer nothing new but the usual. They would come with names like Smart Women plan, which definitely sound attractive, but that is all there to it.
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Even when it comes to personal loans, there are personal loans for women. They would come with names like Nari Shakti and such but it has the same features as any personal loan. You won’t get a discounted interest rate because you are a woman.
As we have seen, women only products are nothing but marketing gimmicks. It is very important to understand what benefits they provide over and above standard products and also the costs associated with them before making a decision. You can also ask your financial advisor before you sign up for any of these.
What’s in a name? Nothing much really.
