Understanding Bank Account Types: Current and Savings

Posted on Mar 17, 2025 in Economy

Understanding Bank Account Types

The most frequent type of account cancellation is initiated by the customer, who must notify the entity and simultaneously balance the account or regulate it if it is overdrawn. In turn, the following formalities must be met:

Current Accounts

For current accounts, the agency requires the submission of the checkbook with unused checks.

Savings Accounts

For savings accounts, the client delivers the savings account book.

Current Accounts: An Overview

A current account is a sight deposit money contract between a bank and an individual or company. The provision of funds in this account is instrumented by checks, which are numbered and linked to form a block, called a checkbook.

The distinguishing features of a current account are:

  • Immediate availability of funds, without notice to the bank.
  • Instrumentalized availability, usually by check.
  • Low-interest rates.
  • Records of transactions are contained in bank statements, which are periodically submitted to the customer.

Types of Checks

  1. Cashier’s Check: The check can be cashed at the window or paid into an account by any person presenting it.
  2. Payable Check: Issued on behalf of a specific individual or legal person and can only be signed by them or paid into their account upon presentation of ID, signature, and annotation of ID on the back.
  3. Check to be Credited: The drawer or holder of a check prohibits payment in cash by indicating on the front the reference “for pay in account”. The bank cannot stop paying in the check, but must necessarily do so in the client’s account.
  4. Cross Check: This is a check that the drawer or holder crosses with two parallel bars on the front. The holder of a cross check that is a client of the entity can redeem cash. However, if the holder is not a client, they must deposit it into their account or the entity concerned. The cross-check can be general or special:
  • Special Cross-Check: When the name of a particular bank is typed in the bar.
  • General Cross-Check: If between the bars, there is no indication or express mention of “bank”, “company”, or an equivalent term.
Certified Check: The drawer or holder of a check can request the bank to give its approval to it by the expressions “certificación”, “visado”, “conforme”, or something similar, inserted on the back of the check. Window Check: The check from the bank itself is rarely used to request when you do not have your checkbook (forgotten, exhausted, etc.) and need to withdraw funds from your checking account. Also, although not usual, you can pay a third party with a window check, crossed and registered by the entity.

In the case of default of the check, the holder can exercise executive actions to claim their cash, proving the lack of payment:

  • Notarial Protest: A statement attesting to the default, in a report issued by a notary. Must be conducted prior to the expiration of the check presentation.
  • Declaration of Default in Lieu of Protest: Performed by the bank-book or camera or compensation system, which notes the date of presentation of the check and that it has not been paid.

Savings Accounts

The only differences are in operation and recording instruments (book, checkbook, and extracts), and interest rates, which are higher in savings accounts.

Banks over the past few years have offered various forms of savings accounts: infantile or juvenile savings, migrant savings, fishing savings, stock savings, housing savings, financial accounts, etc. Also, more recently released varieties of savings accounts with colorful names such as “superlibreta”, “libretón”, “Report flexible”, “Report joven”, etc.