A bank account is needed to transfer and store money, receive cash from an ATM, pay for goods without cash, and convert one currency into another. We will figure out how to open and close an account, what banking secrecy is and why keep money in gold.
What is a checking account
A current account is an account that a bank opens for an individual and which is not intended for transactions related to entrepreneurial activity.
The bank can use the money that is in your current account, but at the same time it guarantees your right to freely dispose of it. For the use of your money, the bank may pay interest and credit it to your account (to the same or another that you specify). Bank services for making transactions with money on the account, as a rule, are paid.
Interest income on the current account is usually low, usually it does not exceed the rate on demand deposits. To accumulate money, it is more profitable to open a bank deposit or use other financial instruments.
Nobody can write off funds from your account without your consent. However, there are times when the law allows this. For example, if a seizure is imposed on money and other valuables on the accounts and deposits of the client. The arrest can only be imposed by the court, and the amount that it determines can be debited from the account only on the basis of a writ of execution.
What is bank secrecy
The bank guarantees the secrecy of the bank account - no one except you (or your representative) can receive information about account transactions. However, the law allows cases when a bank provides this information to state bodies and organizations, for example, courts, tax authorities, the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund, and bailiffs.
How to open a bank account
To open an account, you need to come to a bank branch with documents (as a rule, you need a passport and SNN, if any), write an application and conclude a bank account agreement with the bank.
How to close a bank account
To close an account, you need to submit an application to the bank to terminate the bank account agreement. Within seven days after receiving this application, the bank will give you the rest of the money from the bank account in cash (or transfer it using a payment order).
There are times when the bank terminates the bank account agreement on its own initiative. For example, if within two years there is no money on the client's account and he does not carry out any operations, the bank has the right to refuse to execute the contract. In such cases, the client receives a notification letter from the bank - and 2 months after the warning, the contract is considered terminated (if no money has been received on the client's account during this period).
What are the accounts
Accounts differ depending on the assets they are accounted for.
You can open:
Foreign currency accounts can be opened in a bank that, in addition to a license to work with individuals, also has a license from the Bank to carry out foreign exchange transactions.
Individuals' money deposited in ruble and foreign currency bank accounts is insured in the deposit insurance system (DIS) - just like funds in deposits.
What is an impersonal metal account (IMA)
You can also store your monetary assets in metals, such as gold, silver, platinum or palladium. “Cashless” storage of precious metals has advantages over real gold bars under the pillow.
Why keep money in metals
IMA is an alternative to stock market trading. Your income will depend on market quotes for metals: the higher the cost of precious metals, the more money on your account in rubles. If you are familiar with this market segment, then IMA is a good way for you to increase your assets. It is more convenient to buy and sell metals by bank transfer. Why?
How to open an impersonal metal account
You need to submit an application for opening a compulsory medical insurance in a bank that has such a service. In this case, you will buy the metal of your choice from the bank at the proposed rate. It will not be possible to transfer a metal account from another bank; metal transfer operations are possible only within one bank.
What do you need to remember about compulsory medical insurance?
What is a checking account
A current account is an account that a bank opens for an individual and which is not intended for transactions related to entrepreneurial activity.
The bank can use the money that is in your current account, but at the same time it guarantees your right to freely dispose of it. For the use of your money, the bank may pay interest and credit it to your account (to the same or another that you specify). Bank services for making transactions with money on the account, as a rule, are paid.
Interest income on the current account is usually low, usually it does not exceed the rate on demand deposits. To accumulate money, it is more profitable to open a bank deposit or use other financial instruments.
Nobody can write off funds from your account without your consent. However, there are times when the law allows this. For example, if a seizure is imposed on money and other valuables on the accounts and deposits of the client. The arrest can only be imposed by the court, and the amount that it determines can be debited from the account only on the basis of a writ of execution.
What is bank secrecy
The bank guarantees the secrecy of the bank account - no one except you (or your representative) can receive information about account transactions. However, the law allows cases when a bank provides this information to state bodies and organizations, for example, courts, tax authorities, the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund, and bailiffs.
How to open a bank account
To open an account, you need to come to a bank branch with documents (as a rule, you need a passport and SNN, if any), write an application and conclude a bank account agreement with the bank.
How to close a bank account
To close an account, you need to submit an application to the bank to terminate the bank account agreement. Within seven days after receiving this application, the bank will give you the rest of the money from the bank account in cash (or transfer it using a payment order).
There are times when the bank terminates the bank account agreement on its own initiative. For example, if within two years there is no money on the client's account and he does not carry out any operations, the bank has the right to refuse to execute the contract. In such cases, the client receives a notification letter from the bank - and 2 months after the warning, the contract is considered terminated (if no money has been received on the client's account during this period).
What are the accounts
Accounts differ depending on the assets they are accounted for.
You can open:
- dollar or euro account;
- foreign currency account;
- unallocated metal account (UMA).
Foreign currency accounts can be opened in a bank that, in addition to a license to work with individuals, also has a license from the Bank to carry out foreign exchange transactions.
Individuals' money deposited in ruble and foreign currency bank accounts is insured in the deposit insurance system (DIS) - just like funds in deposits.
What is an impersonal metal account (IMA)
You can also store your monetary assets in metals, such as gold, silver, platinum or palladium. “Cashless” storage of precious metals has advantages over real gold bars under the pillow.
Why keep money in metals
IMA is an alternative to stock market trading. Your income will depend on market quotes for metals: the higher the cost of precious metals, the more money on your account in rubles. If you are familiar with this market segment, then IMA is a good way for you to increase your assets. It is more convenient to buy and sell metals by bank transfer. Why?
- It is cheaper. If you buy bullion for rubles or currency through a bank, you will not have to pay VAT for the purchase. But if you just buy an ingot and do not store it on the OMS, then you will be charged 20% VAT as for the purchase of goods.
- It is safer. You do not have to transport bars and check their authenticity. The risk of losing the bullion lies with the bank, not you.
How to open an impersonal metal account
You need to submit an application for opening a compulsory medical insurance in a bank that has such a service. In this case, you will buy the metal of your choice from the bank at the proposed rate. It will not be possible to transfer a metal account from another bank; metal transfer operations are possible only within one bank.
What do you need to remember about compulsory medical insurance?
- The IMA account is opened for accounting for precious metals that the depositor bought from the bank.
- The account is called impersonal, because it does not contain specific bars of gold, silver or platinum, but their weight value in grams.
- Nevertheless, the number of grams of precious metal accounted for in the compulsory medical insurance can be taken at the current rate in kind (ingot) at that moment, if this is provided for by the contract. As a rule, the bank asks you to notify in advance in which form you prefer to collect your funds.
- If you close the account and ask the bank to issue the metal in the form of a bullion, you will have to pay VAT.
- The bank may charge you interest for servicing the deposit. But more often than not, the service is free, the bank receives its share for working with the account due to the difference in the purchase / sale rate of metal.
- Income from compulsory medical insurance is subject to personal income tax, but if your account is more than 3 years old, you are exempt from paying tax.
- Money in the equivalent of precious metal for compulsory medical insurance is not insured in CERs.
- Interest may be charged on compulsory medical insurance (if provided by the contract). But income on such deposits is not guaranteed, because it depends on price fluctuations in the precious metals market.
