I intent to open a recurring account so that I can accumulate some amount by saving a little each month to be payed later after a year as an LIC policy installment. I scoured over 3 banks to look for which of them provide the best interest rates.
Here’s what I discovered:

ICICI Bank (http://www.icicibank.com/interest-rates.html) :
|
Rates of Interest (% p.a.) w.e.f January 26, 2013
|
||
|
Maturity Period
|
General
|
Senior Citizen**
|
| 6 months | 7.00 | 7.50 |
| 9 months | 7.00 | 7.50 |
| 12 months | 7.50 | 8.00 |
| 15 months | 9.00 | 9.50 |
| 18 months | 9.00 | 9.50 |
| 21 months | 9.00 | 9.50 |
| 24 months | 8.75 | 9.50 |
| 27 months | 8.75 | 9.50 |
| 30 months | 8.75 | 9.50 |
| 33 months | 8.75 | 9.50 |
| 3 years to less than 5 years | 8.75 | 9.50 |
| 5 years upto 10 years | 8.50 | 9.25 |
Citibank (https://www.citibank.co.in/servlets/DCGOutputServlet?txRx=txRx) :
| Recurring Deposits | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| These rates are updated as of 16-MAR-2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Canara Bank (http://www.canarabank.com/English/Scripts/DepositAccounts.aspx) :
| 2. TERM DEPOSITS | ||||
| A. Domestic | Rate of Interest (%) p.a. | |||
| For Deposits less than Rs.15 lakh w.e.f. 08.03.2013 |
||||
| Term Deposits (All Maturities) | General Public | Senior Citizen | ||
| Rate of Interest (% p.a) |
Annualised Interest yield ** |
Rate of Interest (% p.a) |
Annualised Interest yield ** |
|
| 7 days to 14 days * |
4.00 |
4.00 |
4.50 |
4.50 |
| 15 days to 30 days |
4.50 |
4.50 |
5.00 |
5.00 |
| 31 days to 45 days |
7.00 |
7.00 |
7.50 |
7.50 |
| 46 days to 90 days |
7.50 |
7.50 |
8.00 |
8.00 |
| 91 days to 179 days |
8.00 |
8.00 |
8.50 |
8.50 |
| 180 days to 269 days |
7.25 |
7.32 |
7.75 |
7.83 |
| 270 days to less than 1 year |
9.00 |
9.20 |
9.50 |
9.73 |
| 1 year & above to less than 2 years |
9.05 |
9.36 |
9.55 |
9.90 |
| 2 years & above to less than 3 years |
9.05 |
9.80 |
9.55 |
10.39 |
| 3 years & above to less than 5 years |
9.05 |
10.27 |
9.55 |
10.91 |
| 5 years & above to less than 8 years |
9.05 |
11.29 |
9.55 |
12.06 |
| 8 years & above to 10 years |
9.05 |
13.08 |
9.55 |
14.10 |
Now I am confused between because of following points:
1. Why is there so much disparities between rates?
2. Does “Term deposit” a term used by Canara Bank for “Recurring deposit”?
3. What is Annualised Interest yield?
So far, ICICI bank is luring me to open a recurring account with them because of their high interest rate of 9% on 15 month term. But I don’t know if there’s a catch if any. Since I am not sure about if the interest rates described above is for recurring account or not. Further investigation is under the way.