Today was an interesting day in my life, the first time I encountered the difference in the speed with which different banks operate on a single day.
One, I opened a Savings bank account with ICICI bank in Chennai. My salary account is in Gurgaon which I have to close (disable) soon for obvious reasons. For the account opening, my father had called a person yesterday evening, he promised to send a bank person today morning. As promised, a person came and the account opening formalities was completed in hardly 15 minutes and I was given the ATM card, PINs etc. – the typical starter kit contents.
Two, I had to remit an amount of Rs.2000 in State Bank of India. The bank is supposed to open at 1000 hrs, it was open but the counters were not. Quite similar to ICICI bank, SBI also had a token system wherein we have to wait till our number is called to have our transaction. At 1015 the first number 215 was called, mine was 241. I waited there for 10 minutes, went back home (a drive of 5 minutes), eased myself, went back to the bank, it was still hovering around 230. Finally around 1100, 240 was called, I was happy that the next would be mine. As fate would have it, the calling system got crashed and I had to wait for another 5 minutes till the branch manager came and rectified the fault. More than 1 hour to deposit a sum of Rs.2000.
Three, missing envelope in Bank of Baroda. Whenever we get a loan from a bank, there is a unit of that bank which would sanction the loan and we would be opening a savings bank account / get the money from some other unit. The sanctioning unit is called “Central Processing cell” in BoB parlance. I had to get my loan papers from CPC in TNagar Branch to Mylapore branch (where my father has a current a/c and would be going regularly, so knows a lot of people there). In fact, the loan papers should be sent by CPC itself. As it was getting delayed, we decided to handover the papers from CPC to Mylapore branch. The papers were ready, the loan was sanctioned on 20th May (today is 31st), waiting to be sent to the branch. When we went there, the officer could not find an envelope to put in the papers (the documents must be sealed while sent from CPC to the concerned branch) and we had to wait for 40 minutes for an empty envelope to be found. It was really irritating to have delays like this. In one of my earlier discussions with a neighbour who works in a bank, I understood that Education Loan is one of the safest loans lent by banks and banks show excessive interest in giving such loans. If this is the enthusiasm shown by a bank, I wonder the case if the bank is reluctant to give the loan.
4 comments:
SBI claims that it has the maximum number of ATMs across the country. if that be the case, wouldn's some of the ATMs have the cash deposit facility as well. If such a thing exists, you need not queue up to deposit money.
I beg to disagree on the point about the educational loans. lot of students default on their educational loans once they graduate. this is not bcoz they don't have money. this is mainly bcoz they don't care about such a loan. once they pass out, they hardly inform the relevant PSU bank after their whereabouts. ET carries frequent reports about the default rates (especially MBA grads) in such loans. some relevant links:
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2006/may/18study.htm
http://shrikant.emergic.org/archives/2005/07/22/the-shameless-gurus-of-today/
@kaps:
Sometimes proximity lures us away from more efficient (in time) means.
It is startling to know that there are ed loan defaulters, that too after MBA!
the hidden charges often masked away in the fine print, and the flexibility shown by the PSU banks are often overlooked by ppl tending to compare PSU banks with private banks.
take the case where a school student wants to save Rs 500 from his pocket money in a bank every month. Inculcates saving habit. He goes to ICICI and opens an account in a jiffy and takka deposits 500 bucks...He goes there next month an finds that his balance is only RS 450...A 50 Rs penalty for having a deposit of less than 5000...no more savings for that kid :(
will PSU banks ever do that, never...that’s why they have to process thousands of small transactions every day leading to delays...while the private sector banks process only a few large transactions and loot you with out your knowledge while you sing their praise...
@anon:
The delay in BoB has got nothing to do with the number of transactions. The loan was sanctioned on 20th May and there were no takers until I went personally on 31st May. If it had taken time to sanction the loan, then I take your point. But delays after sanctioning the loan for processing (crediting the money and all) is far away from your valid point.
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