While DHFL already offered accidental death insurance cover up to ₹1 lakh for its Ashray Deposits, it has gone a step further now. Its new Wealth2Health deposit scheme comes with added insurance features. Here’s more.

The basics For deposits with tenures of two to three years, the Wealth2Health deposit pays an interest rate of 9.5 per cent. For a 40-month deposit, rates are higher by a whisker, at 9.6 per cent. DHFL’s deposit scheme is rated AAA, the highest grade, by rating agencies CARE and Brickwork. Privileged customers get 0.25 per cent more.

The minimum investment is ₹25,000, higher than DHFL’s usual ₹2,000 requirement.

Loan for medical transactions The Wealth2Health scheme aims at providing loans for medical purposes against the security of the deposit.

You get a card once you open the deposit. You can use this card for cashless transactions at over 1,500 network hospitals.

Each time you pay with the card, it automatically creates a loan on the fixed deposit with the tenure equal to that of the deposit.

The interest rate charged on the loan is 2 percentage points higher than the deposit rate, which pegs it quite high at 11.25-11.5 per cent.

You can use your deposit to close the loan if it matures before you have paid back the loan. Repayments will be adjusted as and when they are made.

You can take loans up to 75 per cent of the deposit value.

You do have to apply specifically for the Wealth2Heath deposit. But once opened, if you happen to have deposits with DHFL already, you can link these to the scheme as well.

As a result, your total loan eligibility will go up. This includes DHFL’s special deposit schemes too, such as its Swayamsiddha Deposit for Women and Ashray Deposit Plus.

Apart from the loan provision, there are other features to this scheme. For instance, you can snag a 5-25 per cent discount on medical or diagnostic tests.

If you’re worried over which hospital to be treated at, the deposit scheme benefits include offering advice on this front.

You even have all-day, everyday phone access to a doctor for clarifications, if any.

In some cases, you can get a free second opinion consultation with a panel of specialist doctors.

Payment for treatment using the card can be done three months after opening the deposit. The non-financial features come into force from the time of opening.

What to go for What is attractive is the interest rate offered on the deposit. The rates across time periods are currently the highest offered by corporate deposits of similar grade.

With interest rates trending down, investing in longer-tenure deposits of three years or 40 months makes good sense.

Discounts on diagnostic tests and the ability to access the doctor for his advice at any time are useful as well.

Benefits are available to the first holder only. As far as the loan feature goes, you can take one on even your bank fixed deposits; interest rates are likely to be commensurately lower as well.

DHFL’s loan provision simply eliminates the hassle of applying for a loan and makes the payment process more convenient.

Besides, you may already have health insurance to meet medical bills. It’s best to treat this feature as one to use for emergencies and not something to base your investment decision on.

About the company DHFL is a private housing finance player, with most of its footprint in the Tier II and Tier III cities. The focus is on the lower to middle income groups in these regions.

Its loan book is at ₹56,900 crore as of March 2015, a growth of 27 per cent over the year before. The net interest margin has moved slightly higher to 2.89 per cent for the year, moving back to the levels seen in 2011-2012.

The gross non-performing asset ratio, however, has inched up to 0.84 per cent in 2014-15 from the 0.78 per cent the year before.

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