When it comes to risk-free investment, post office term deposits are a handy option. If you plan to open one, but are in a dilemma over whether to go for bank fixed deposit instead, it would be in order to do a comparative analysis.
Interest rates
A post office term deposit is much like a bank FD with tenures of 1/2/3/5 years. However, with post office term deposits, interest rates for each of the tenures are fixed. Interest rates on bank FDs, on the other hand, vary with market conditions, with many lenders coming out with odd term fixed deposit schemes to fix their asset-liability ratio. For example, a bank may come out with a 364-day fixed deposit with interest rates that are 1% higher than for a one-year and 16-day FD.
While you need to be an Indian resident to open a post office term deposit, there are no such restrictions for a bank FD. In fact, NRIs, in many cases, get higher rates of interest.
Deposit amount
The minimum amount for opening a post office term deposit is R200, and its multiples thereafter. Bank deposits have tenures ranging from less than 15 days to over 10 years. The minimum deposit amount, however, varies with banks, and schemes. Many banks keep a higher minimum deposit amount and allow only a few privileged customers to open FDs. The minimum deposit amount may be as high as R10,000 in certain cases.
Read more - http://www.financialexpress.com/news/investment-post-office-term-deposits-vs-bank-fds/1265534
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