Tag: Banking

Should you become Priority Banking Customer? Are their any advantages ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Have you ever thought of applying for Priority Banking with your bank (also called as Preferred banking)? A lot of banks offer something called “Priority Banking Solutions” to their customers who qualify the eligibility criteria. A priority banking customer is treated in a more special way and is taken care of priority by the bank. Let us talk about it in detail and does it make any sense for you as a customer to apply for priority banking customer or not?

Priority Banking India

Why does a bank have a Priority Banking Model?

The first question to understand is why do banks have a Priority banking model at all? The reason is very simple, to treat different levels of customers differently. If you want to harshly put it, then its just a way of keep a separate list of High Net-worth Individuals and focus on them more and service them in a better manner, because one customer who is eligible for priority banking will give 100 times more business/profit to the bank compared to a normal customer. A preferred banking customer will have a few eligibility criteria to honor, which is generally linked to his bank amount balance.

When I looked at HDFC Priority Programme, its eligibility criteria mentions this –

You are eligible for the HDFC Bank Priority Programme ** if you:

  • Hold at least one Savings or Current account, sole or joint, with HDFC Bank.
  • Maintain a minimum Average Monthly balance of Rs. 15 Lakhs across all your accounts (Savings, Current and Fixed Deposits*)
    OR
  • Maintain an Average Quarterly Balance of Rs. 2 Lakhs in your Savings account.
    OR
  • Maintain an Average Quarterly Balance of Rs. 5 Lakhs in your Current account.
  • The requisite balance can be maintained over your accounts and over those of your immediate family members.

In the same way, other banks also keep criteria for maintaining a high balance in saving bank account. That simply means that the bank would get lots of cash to use for their own business and naturally they can treat these customers very well. Check out this survey on the best banks in India.

Facilities provided to Priority Banking Customer

A Priority banking customer has few advantages over normal customers and gets more features. Some of the most common one’s are

  • Separate queue for in the bank so that you don’t wait
  • No charges on NEFT and RTGS transactions through Net banking
  • Free “At Par” cheque book payable at any Bank branch across the country, so you do away with the need to ask for demand drafts
  • Charges waiver for DD cancellation, Cheque return, Duplicate statement charges, Demand Draft Charges, Discount in Locker Charges,
  • Cheque pick-up facility
  • No charges on balance inquiries and cash withdrawals if you transact on Other Bank ATMs in India.
  • Many other benefits
  • Premium Credit Cards

However, all this is not so real and true

While banks list down these facilities on their website, on the ground level – there are many real-life customers who say that at the end of the day, you never get what is promised from these banks. There are a lot of things just on paper. Most of the banks just use the Preferred banking route to attract high net worth customers and finally end up calling then for investment products. A relationship manager keeps in touch with you (the target), he has all the information on how much money you have and when money comes and goes out of your account.

Here are 2 real-life experiences related to Priority banking from our questions and answers forum. Hope you get some good ideas from it.

Case 1 – Yogesh Shares his experience

There are no major benefits for being Classic or even Priority customer except some savings in NEFT charges and cheque book requests. I was HDFC classic customer for last 10 years. Around 9 months back they changed my status as Priority customer without taking a consent from me (same reason..as I opened some FD the bank) I just received letter that I am now Priority customer.

I did not notice any big difference of status being Classic or Priority customer.

The facilities they have are actually only on paper. Despite of a lot of follow up locker facility when one new branch had recently started and lockers were available, I did not get it. I was told to take some Young star policy in case I want locker. I denied this condition and the result was they did not allocate locker to me. So 50% discount is on paper. In last 10+ years I even did not meet personal banker for more than 5 times. My experience is personal banker keeps on changing periodically (on an average 2 years for each PB) and sometimes you need to trace who is your PB !

Question one may ask why I am still continuing with HDFC bank as classic customer. The simple reason is the bank is closer to my residence and with very less crowd.

In the last month I broke my FDs because of some reason and immediately they put my account into ‘Others’ category and again without informing me ! I could know that after they started charging me for account statement, signature verification/wife’s name change for mutual funds, NEFT transactions etc. So now I have instructed them to update my account as to ‘Classic Customer’ status as I still meet those criteria. Important thing to note…my Personal Banker did not take action immediately this time. That person told me s/he will forward my request to relevant department. Also at the same time this Personal Banker asked me to send request to know new Personal Banker !

Case 2 – Ayush Shares his experience

In my opinion there is no harm in being a Priority or privilege customer and using benefits offered by the bank (if they are of any use to you and are saving you time and money)

The main drawback here is, your name will go into their database as a customer with more money than some (or say lot) of others. This may result in some unwanted call such as credit card / loans / insurance or other banking products. When it comes to the actual banking needs there is nothing big that you will get. The relationship manager may keep calling you with information on new products.

My personal experience being a classic customer with HDFC is not so encouraging when the genuine banking needs are there. For example, I requested that I need a safety locker in HDFC branch but just like other customers I am on waiting list. In case I am lucky enough to get a locker, I have to pay only half the annual fee but will I get a locker is the question, that remains. You can save a few Rs. by saving on DD charges (to a certain limit), NEFT charges etc. but nothing big.

I am continuing just because I have all my banking /investment etc through HDFC and do not want to change and this classic banking is an added thing on to that account.

Conclusion

Most of the people have very basic banking needs, especially after Internet banking and mobile banking has arrived, your dependence on cheque books, Demand Drafts, and any physical visits to banks has reduced. For most of the people, anyways banking is just a small part of their financial life and they get most of the facilities and what they need from their basic banking account only. For them, it does not make a lot of sense to apply for priority banking . However, there are many investors who are heavily into banking due to personal reasons or for their professional needs.  For many of them, few features which come with Priority banking might mean a very big thing. If you are one of them, just see how much of it will be eventually used by you and then take a call.

What do you think about it? Would you like to become a Priority Banking customer or not ?

Are Bank Lockers totally Safe & is Fixed Deposit really required to get one ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today we are going to talk about “Bank Lockers” and how banks use unfair tactics by forcing customers to open a fixed deposit for a very large amount and that too for a long duration. It’s not uncommon to hear bank officials asking for fixed deposits of Rs 5-10 lacs in case you want to get a locker. That is just not allowed as per RBI and we will see what exactly the RBI guidelines say about it.

Bank Lockers in India

What is a Bank Locker and How does it work ?

Just like we have a saving bank account and fixed deposits to keep our money safely, we have “Safe Bank Lockers” to store our physical belongings like jewelry and various kind of important documents like WILL, Property Papers and other valuable items which you feel should not be kept at home.

There are always 2 keys for the locker, one key is with Bank and the other with the locker holder. The locker can only be opened when both the keys are used at the same time. Generally bank official applies the key and then leaves the locker room and only after he/she leaves, you should open the locker door and do what you wanted to do. The banks use very high quality, strong lockers (generally Godrej). So overall, this all makes sure that your locker is very safe.

Lockers are to be allotted on first come, first serve basis (as per rules) and in-case the lockers are exhausted, the bank is suppose to keep a waiting list of customers who have applied for the lockers and have to inform them when the lockers are free in the same order of application. If bank says that they do not have any lockers left at the moment, you can ask them for the “Waiting Register.”

Annual Rent for Bank Lockers and Security Fixed Deposit

Bank lockers come in different shape and sizes, which can be taken by customers depending on their requirement. For using the facility of lockers, you have to pay an annual rent which will vary depending on the size of the locker, the city (metro, urban, or rural). For most banks, the locker rent starts from Rs 750-1,000 per year and can go up to 5,000-10,000 for PSU banks and even 40,000-50,000 in case of Private banks (see the locker rates for bank for Baroda here) .

Is opening a Fixed Deposit mandatory for getting a Locker ?

Now lets discuss the biggest pain point of customers. Almost all of you might have faced this. When you go to open a bank locker, you are asked to open a Fixed Deposit for a large sum like 2-5 lacs for a long duration or asked to buy some policy (ULIP or Traditional Plan) saying that this is the rule for assigning the locker. However it’s just a plain lie and an unfair practice followed by Banks. A common man has no idea if the bank is correct or not and where to get the right information? So, I looked at RBI regulations on Banking and found out the exact rules.

And this is what I found – YES ! , Banks can ask for Fixed Deposits as security !

But, here is the catch ! .

As per RBI regulations, the bank can ask for a fixed deposit only to cover 3 yrs of locker rent and the breaking charges, not a rupee more than that and that too only from the new locker applicants, not old one’s already having a locker. Here is the RBI wordings from their notification

1.2 Fixed Deposit as Security for Lockers

Banks may face situations where the locker-hirer neither operates the locker nor pays rent. To ensure prompt payment of locker rent, banks may at the time of allotment, obtain a Fixed Deposit which would cover 3 years rent and the charges for breaking open the locker in case of an eventuality. However, banks should not insist on such Fixed Deposit from the existing locker-hirers.

To give you the proof one of the PSU banks – Bank of Baroda clearly mentions this fact on its website here

At the time of hiring the locker, bank will obtain a minimum-security deposit in the form of FDR from the lessee for the amount which would cover 3 years rent and the charges for breaking open the locker in case of such eventualities.

So, suppose you want to get a locker whose yearly rent is Rs 1,200 and the breaking charges for locker is say, Rs 100, then they can only insist on a Fixed deposit of Rs 3,700 (3 years rent + breaking charges); nothing more than that. Ergo, 3 years locker rent is going to be a very small amount, which almost anyone can afford, but banks lie to you and trick you by telling you to invest in a really large Fixed Deposit .You oblige for your own reasons. Banks do it to make sure they reach their monthly and yearly targets of acquiring new fixed deposits and selling useless policies like ULIPs and traditional plans (Note that banks are one of the channels for many companies to sell their products)

So next time you go to the bank for enquiring about lockers and bank officials don’t give you proper information, you can tell them about the rules and the notification from RBI. That should give some shock to the employees there and they might treat you a bit fairly. If still they do not budge, use the threat of RTI and banking ombudsman (and then actually use it)

Use RTI to resolve the Issue and Find Information

RTI is a powerful tool for a common man. We will see now, how you can use RTI against PSU banks. Next time when you go to a bank (I am referring to PSU banks here), tell them you want to have a locker (assuming you are having a saving bank account there already) .

When the bank staff tells you that they do not have any lockers available at the moment or try to impose some rules, you can tell them that you will find out things by filing an RTI application to the branch manager and also would quote his name in the RTI (stare on his name plate at the desk , he/she might be in horror). If they do not budge, then really go file a RTI after the incident. I would say better file a RTI before and once you get the reply from RTI, reach the bank with RTI reply letter itself.

When you file RTI letter, ask following things

  • How many lockers are installed in the branch ?
  • What is the size and volume of lockers and how many types ?
  • Rental amount per year for the Lockers ?
  • How many lockers are Unoccupied and available for allotment
  • How many people have requested for it and are on “waiting list” ?
  • What is your serial number in that waiting list (in-case you have applied for it) ?
  • Is there any requirement to make a Fixed Deposit for getting the Locker (YES/NO) ?
  • What is the amount of fixed deposit to be opened and what are the rules for it ?
  • In how many days a bank locker is allotted ?
  • Who is responsible to allot the bank locker in bank ? What is the name of the officer or designation ?

A weak person is always exploited in society, that’s the nature of life . When you appear as uninformed and too needy, anyone can take advantage of you, but when you appear as informed investor, who will not allow anyone to take advantage of his/her and who appears to be committed to be treated fairly, its tough for the other side to exploit then. Here is an instance on how Nikhil got the Locker facility with any FD at ING Vyasa Bank

I experienced a similar forced selling sometime back at ING bank. I wanted a locker and the Relationship manager said I need to make an FD of Rs. 100000/-. when I said NO. they said its a rule. I said there is no Rule book which mentions this. Rules are same for all banks and branches. the Relationship Manager stubbornly said ‘This is the rule of this branch’.

I just went to their website, found the no. of Chief compliance officer and spoke to the officer who helped me on this. After 2 hrs, I got a call from the same Branch of ING and they requested me to come to the branch and gave me a locker without any kind of FD!

Locker with Joint Accounts and Nomination

Just like saving bank accounts and fixed deposits, you can open a locker as joint account and with nomination facility, so that in case the demise or unavailability of the main locker holder, the joint holder can access the locker and operate it. Also in case the locker holders die (both joint holders), at-least there would be a nominee, who can get access to the locker by producing death certificate and filing up claim form.

There are tons of cases where locker was just owned by a single holder and when he died ,the family had to move mountains to finally get access to the locker. Worst, many families are not even aware about the existence of the locker and banks don’t take much interest in tracing down the locker family for many years (provided they have got the rent or have the fixed deposit linked to it).

understanding bank lockers

Can bank open the Locker without your permission ?

In the worst case YES ! You need to operate your locker from time to time (at least 6 months to an year ideally.) Recently there have been cases when explosives and illegal things were found in lockers, which shows how lockers can be misused. When you are allotted a locker, there is proper KYC done by bank to make sure they know everything about you. They would place you in particular risk category like low, medium or high. If you are a high risk category person, you need to operate your locker at least once a year to make sure everything is fine. If you fail to operate your account for very long (depending on your risk profile), the bank will first remind you about the  locker and will ask you reasons for not operating your locker. If you still do not take actions, the bank has all the rights to break your locker and give it to some one else, even if you are paying the yearly rent on time.

In case there is a genuine reason for not operating your locker for a very long time, you need to give it in writing to the bank mentioning the reason (like if you are now an NRI or if you are out of the city for a long time.) Also, if you fail to pay the yearly rent, they can break off the locker and re-allot it to someone else. Fair enough 🙂

Are bank lockers really safe ? Who is responsible if something goes wrong ?

Now this can be news to many, and a shocker, but in truth, Banks are not responsible for your bank lockers for any unforeseen events which is beyond the control of banks, provided they have done every due diligence from their side to protect it. You have to understand what exactly a locker facility is. The bank just gives out the space they have, on rent and make sure that its safe and secured professionally. They are suppose to make sure they have all the safety and security measures in place, to ensure that the lockers are safe and secure. So its more of a proprietor and a tenant relationship. In case there is a robbery (not in control of bank), Earthquake, Tsunami, Fire (which is not in control of bank) then bank is NOT responsible, or liable to compensate you.

Let me give you an example – If there is a robbery in the bank and your locker is one of the unlucky ones to get robbed, you lose it completely and the bank is not liable to compensate you for the reason that it wasn’t in their control to stop it, especially when they have all the security measures in place like a security guard, powerful lockers, CCTV cameras installed, and emergency alarms in place. The act of robbery is more of a unlucky event for them and you.  (However there are some policies in market which insures the jewelery in your bank locker like this policy from Axis Bank). If you think that robberies in bank (with locker looted) do not happen in reality, I must tell you that it happens and has happened in past. Here is one such example.

Robbers recently broke into the strong room of a Punjab and Sind Bank branch in Jalandhar and emptied out 36 lockers in an incident that stands out as a grim reminder of the abysmally poor security infrastructure at financial facilities in the country. The incident is a reminder of a burglary at the Chirgaon branch of the Central Bank of India in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. As many as 45 lockers had been robbed in the November 2010 episode.  (Link)

 

When you put your valuables in bank locker, the bank does not know what did you put in there, there is no record of it in writing with bank. That’s one reason, they can’t compensate you in case something happens to it (It could happen that you never had anything in locker and you can suddenly say that jewellery worth 10 lacs is missing! What’s the proof ?) However it does not entirely mean that banks are not liable to pay back or compensate the locker holders in every case!

Bank has to make sure they have done their side of safety measures and security

Bank is not responsible for your lockers only in case of those events which are totally not in control of bank and unavoidable, but only when they have done their share of work and security like I explained above. If banks fail to do their duty and then a robbery or some unforeseen event occurs, which results in your loss, then a customer can always claim that the bank is liable to compensate, because then the incident might have not happened or could have been avoided if banks did their part.

In another case, of Bank of India vs Kanak Choudhary, the customer had kept currency notes in locker which was eaten up by termites. Here the bank didn’t do their job of ensuring that the place is clean and safe. The customer was awarded the compensation.

Bank of India vs Kanak Choudhary

Here, the customer filed a case stating that termites had destroyed currency notes and important papers kept in her locker. The commission said that the bank “was bound to ensure that the respondents’ locker remained safe in all respects”, and awarded compensation to the customer.

Even in the robbery case shown above, the bank was found to be irresponsible and didn’t not do a lot of security measures, and definitively there was a chance of the robbery being unsuccessful if only bank had done their share of work, which means the locker holders would get compensation from bank, but then issue now is, how much compensation bank has to give and why when ? The matter would have gone to court and delays and frustration must have happened in that case.

But how much you can claim back from Bank ?

Not 100%, because you can never define how much you lost with 100% certainty. Banks themselves insure the lockers to deal with the loss in an extreme eventuality, so bank themselves get some compensation from wherever they have insured the lockers. So you can get some compensation from bank out the amount they themselves get, but to get back the compensation, you will have to show the receipts of the things which you claim was kept in the locker. Even in that case, you will not get 100% back, it will be some percentage, which can’t be defined. Also you can’t get back any compensation for the documents kept (as you cant define it’s value) and the currency notes if any.  You can look at the youtube video above to see these points on claims you can get back.

While the risk is always there with bank lockers, note that this is an extreme eventuality. This information should be seen more of an awareness point, rather than a decision making criteria to choose or discard taking a bank locker. You don’t stop driving a car, just because there is a small chance of accident, right? In the same way, just because lockers are not 100% secured, does not mean you say that – “I will not go with bank lockers, because its not 100% safe.” Truly speaking it’s much safer than you bank almirah at least.

Some safety measures you should take for Bank Locker

You can never get rid of the complete risk, but you can ensure that you follow some best practices and common sense tips to make sure your bank locker is safe. Here are some good practice.

  • Always open your locker after the bank employee who accompanies you to the vault leaves the place.
  • Make sure your bank has all the necessary security measures, such as alarm system, iron-gated rooms, electronic surveillance via CCTV, etc.
  • Visit your locker frequently and ensure your valuables are safe. The RBI and banks expect frequent locker visits from customers.
  • Also, ensure the locker is properly locked before you leave the vault.
  • If possible, better have 2 lockers to diversify the risk (like one locker for valuables, and another for Documents)
  • If possible, always go with the bank where you have huge trust and comfort and its near your place, so that you can visit them often
  • Keep laminated documents in the locker, so that they are not damaged if you keep them for a very long tenure.
  • Always keep a record of what all you have in locker, so that in-case of eventuality, you can alteast find out what was lost and what was the worth
  • Demand a copy of the hire-purchase agreement for the locker so that the bank cannot ask for a higher rent in future
  • If a bank says the locker request is in the waiting list, ask for the waiting number
  • Demand a copy of the bank’s internal guidelines regarding lockers (their guidelines never mention fixed deposit as a mandatory condition)

I hope this articles has helped you understand almost everything about the bank lockers and how they work and different rules and regulations. Do you also have a bank locker ? Generally what all you keep their and how much do you trust your bank for the locker safety ?

Virtual Credit Card – Create Instantly & Use for Online Transactions

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Are you scared of using your credit card online on some website because you feel there might be  fraud or a security threat? If that’s the case, then welcome to the world of Virtual credit cards, which I will explain in today’s article and also how it can be useful for you.

Virtual Credit Cards in India

A virtual credit card (VCC) is an add-on credit card issued on your primary credit card; only it’s virtual and does not have any plastic existence. You can instantly create it, using your net-banking facility by providing your credit card or debit card details. All relevant details like the card number, the ‘VALID FROM’ date, the expiry date and the CVV number are visible online to you and this virtual credit card enables you to transact online with a credit limit of your choice. Also the virtual card does not have any fee associated with it and comes for FREE!

The key details of your VCC like the card number, expiry date etc. are used when you transact online, but your primary card details are never shared with the merchant online, so you never have to be worried about losing your card or having to carry it ‘safely’ in your wallet. There are tons of banks which offer these instant virtual cards these days. Some of them are

  • ICICI VCC
  • HDFC NetSafe
  • Kotak netc@rd
  • SBI-Virtual Card
  • Axis Bank e-wallet card

Validity of the virtual card ?

The virtual credit card is valid only for a single use and automatically expires within 24 hours if the virtual credit card is not used, which means that the chances of credit card fraud or misuse are significantly lower than a real credit card. Also understand the if you hold a VISA card, then the virtual card which you will get will be VISA one and if it’s Master Card, then it’s going to obviously be a Master card.

Is virtual Credit Card only for Online Use ?

Yes, as a virtual credit card is not a physical card, it can be used only for online transactions, for which all you need is credit card number, CVV number and Expiry number. Once used the card expires and can’t be used again. If you want to execute another transaction, you will have to generate another virtual card. The maximum limit of your virtual credit card can be as high as your actual limit on the real credit card. When you make the payment on some website using your virtual card, it will appear on your physical credit card statement itself.

Most of the banks issue a card which is valid internationally and you can use them on the websites outside India, however some banks like SBI bank still issue virtual credit cards which are not valid outside India. You will have to check with your bank if it is valid internationally or not.

Can you create Virtual Credit Cards using a Debit Card?

The answer is Yes for most banks. Even if you just have a debit card and not a real credit card (Check out the best credit card in India as per our survey), you can still use your debit card to create a virtual card. There are many people who want to transact online at times, but do not hold a credit card. Now they can create a VCC and use that to transact online. However I just checked my ICICI account and when I want to create a virtual credit card, it asks for my credit card number, so it seems like ICICI bank doesn’t allow VCC creation via a debit card. Anybody created one using debit card in ICICI bank? Let us know!

Real Life Situations when you can use Virtual Credit Card ?

  • When you are transacting on a website, where you do not feel very confident about security, but still you have to transact anyways due to some reason. Check out this fraud
  • When any friend of yours ask you for your credit card, where you want to “NO” , but still can’t say NO. You can now create a virtual credit card and give the details to him.
  • When you do not have a real credit card, but only have a net-banking facility, you can still create virtual credit cards and use them.
  • You can also use these virtual cards where you just want to try out the service , but by default the website starts charging the card on renewal basis. If you use virtual card, it will anyways get cancelled after one use and there will be no renewal charges later – Here is a real experience.

Do you feel virtual credit cards to be of any use in your life? Are you already using virtual credit card or planning to use them? Please share it with others!

Is filing FIR compulsory for issuing duplicate passbook in PSU Banks?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Ayush lost his SBI bank account passbook and faced some issues from SBI bank, which I thought should be shared with others . Here is what happened with him. Read it directly from him (through our jagoinvestor forum)

Hello everyone. I recently lost my SBI savings account passbook unfortunately somewhere in my home. When i approached the branch, they said i need to file an FIR in the nearest Police Station. They said without it they will not issue me a duplicate passbook. When i went to the Police Station, after making me wait for an hour, officers were asking me for a bribe to file an FIR. : ) They were also asking for my complete account and other personal details. I hesitated to disclose any personal details to anyone. I thought i should avoid having an argument with them. So i came back home without filing an FIR. Isn’t it too much to ask for, for just issuing a simple duplicate passbook?

I also have accounts with HDFC and ICICI Bank, one for expenses and the other one for savings and investments. In HDFC Bank, they issue the passbook on the same day in case of loss of passbook. You just have to give a written application to them and its done within few minutes. Now i am thinking of leaving the SBI account dormant after leaving the balance to zero. It is so much of a headache. : ) I only opened the savings account with SBI because they have the best network of ATMs in the country. Is filing FIR in Police Station compulsory for issuing a duplicate passbook?

Is FIR really required to claim the duplicate Passbook Copy ?

The answer is NO .

There is no requirement like that . As soon as I read Ayush question on our forum, I was very clear that SBI employees whom he contacted just didn’t wanted to work and wanted to have an easy day in office, so they misguided him by telling that he needs to have a policy FIR for this, which actually worked ! and Ayush was back to home frustrated, promising himself that enough is enough and he does not want to SBI bank account at all. I feel SBI needs to seriously work on its employees and train them on “Customer Handling” .

Procedure to get the duplicate passbook from bank

The process is as simple as anything . Pattu (very active on our forum) shares 

I have lost my SBI passbook twice and got it replaced. There is no such rule. These days they have our photo and signature stored in the computer. So if the account holder turns up and gives a request for new passbook they will have to comply.

Even Naveen shares his parents experience 

Let me share my exp with SBH , where both my parents have sb accounts. My father needs passbook entries because he is not comfortable with debit card transactions and not having much knowledge about internet etc… He kept both passbooks at some location and couldn’t recollect where they are. Later, i have been to SBH branch and paid a challan paying slip( below 50 I remember 3yrs back) for both the accounts and submitted receipts to clerk, where i have been told to come at 4 pm later on the same day with both my mom and dad passport size photos…

Passbooks are ready and photos are pasted and stamped with bank seal and submitted to me on the evening itself. I felt happy for the service bcos my parents cant travel long to do this by themselves..

Give them RTI shock !

I had explained earliar how you can use RTI against PSU banks to get any kind of information and that’s exactly I suggested him. I suspect that SBI guy who told him that was not in the mood to work that day and just wants to tell you things which will make sure his work decreases.  I would say go to the SBI bank branch and tell that officer that you filed a RTI and put his officer name and asked them that what this officer is telling me is really required or not and RTI reply said that – There is no requirement like that . Demand him to meet bank manager and confirm it.

Finally what happened ?

After we all helped this guy on forum, he went back to bank branch and applied all that we told him. This time it worked and here is what happened –

 I went again to the branch and this time the same lady officer who was persistent for filing an FIR said that it is not compulsory. I was amazed by her reply. I also felt angry that i have to make two trips to the bank for this. The lady officer said, i have to talk to the Branch Manager in this regard and if he agrees, she will issue me the duplicate passbook. So i waited for another 1 hour since the Branch Manager was not in his room. When he didn’t came for another 15 minutes, i left for home. So i have to make another trip to the bank. This time i will directly talk to the Branch Manager and if he doesn’t agrees i am done with the bank. I will leave the account dormant after leaving the balance to zero. So much for issuing a simple passbook. : )

What do you think about this incident ? Do you feel PSU banks exploit customers ? Any personal cases ?

Credit Card Reward Points & Cash Back Comparison – Unearthed

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Do you know which is the best credit card in India in terms of rewards points which you can redeem at different categories ? Have you ever wondered how different or close these credit card reward points are ? Let me take an example!

Ever thought the difference between how does 5X rewards from Standard Chartered differ from 10X rewards from Amex, ever wondered whether taking a 5% cash back is better than going for 10X rewards. Ever thought how can you save in excess of 16K per annum only by having a few cards in your wallet, well continue reading.

credit cards reward points in India

Every credit card company offers rewards in the form of Cashback / Reward Points to its customers. These rewards are funded by what is called as interchange. Interchange is transaction fees charged by the bank from the merchant. Its usually 2 – 3 % of every transaction. This is the reason, why some merchants ask an excess 2% if you tell them you would be swiping your card instead of paying them in cash (Read some must know points about your credit card).  Cash is the preferred mode for another reason and that is to save taxes, as every credit card transaction goes into the books of the merchant, but that’s a separate discussion and we’ll leave it to some other day.

A few disclaimers before I proceed. This article is about rewards points and how you can save maximum through credit cards. “A rupee earned is a rupee that earned 6 percent” – So lets save some money for all of you. Again the entire article has been based on my experience and research, so am open to suggestions and feedback. Also I haven’t included Airlines spend, as I still don’t fully understand the Points to Miles conversion for different Airlines.

Following are some of the points that I hope the readers will have a much better understanding of, by the end of the article.

  • Comparing Credit cards by their rewards proposition – If you have multiple credit cards, how to figure which one has a better reward structure?
  • Accelerated Rewards: Most of the credit cards have an accelerated reward structure. So how should that impact your spending pattern so as to maximize the rewards?
  • Wallet of Credit cards that one should own – Using the methodology explained above, this would be a list of credit cards that will help maximize your savings.

Credit Card Reward Points & Cash Back Benefits

Lets start of with , How should one go about comparing credit cards by their rewards proposition.  To understand this, there are two important concepts that one should be aware of

  • Earn Rate:  Earn Rate is number of points earned per amount spent.
  • Burn Rate:  Burn Rate is the Rupee value of a reward point.

For Example – For a HDFC Silver/Gold card, you earn 1 reward point for Rs. 150 spent, so the earn rate is 1/150. Whereas each credit card reward point of a silver/gold card is worth 15 paise or Rs 0.15 only. So the burn rate is 15 Paise. You multiply the two and you will get a metric which you can use to compare credit cards from different companies.

Using the Burn Rate and the Earn Rate, I have come out with a very simple metric  “Rupee earned per every Rs. 100 Spent” , which can be used to compare some of the top credit cards in the market.

Rupee earned per every Rs. 100 spent = Earn Rate (Calculated on Rs. 100 Spent) * Burn Rate

Also the comparisons below are based on the basic earnings. Most of the cards have an accelerated reward-earning proposition. We shall factor that when we calculate the monthly earnings from different spend scenarios. Also will show you how to create your own savings through your own spend numbers.

Example – 1

I will give you an example of how this metric would be useful to differentiate between two cards of the same bank or different cards across the bank.

hdfc credit card reward points

The above tables give us an idea of hdfc credit card reward points benefits in the market. If you look at the value proposition of different cards, they are vastly different in terms of Rupee Earned per Rs. 100 spent. Rs.100 spent on a HDFC silver/gold card will give you Rs. 0.10 whereas spending the same amount on Regalia will give you a Rs. 1.08 in terms of reward points. But again Regalia and Infinia are fee based cards and hence one needs to factor this in when computing the relative reward proposition of the card.

Example – 2

Now lets compare HDFC reward points with CITIBANK rewards points

hdfc vs citibank credit card reward points

If we compare the same metric Rupee Earned per Rs. 100 spent, Platinum and Ultima cards are decent options and in the premium segment HDFC provides better rewards.

Accelerated Rewards – Categories of Spend and Best card in each category

Apart from the basic reward proposition that’s present with every credit card, most of the cards in the market offer an accelerated rewards earning proposition. These accelerated rewards can be in a variety of forms. E.g. 5x rewards on Departmental Stores, 10X rewards on Online spends or a 5% cashback on Departmental Stores.

Now lets use the concept above and factor in the accelerated rewards propositions, (That some of these cards offer) to get to the best cards in each of the spend categories. The formula to calculate the rewards is a simple one: Just multiply the basic rewards earned above by the accelerated reward earning multiple.

Formula

Rewards Earned = (Rupee Earned per Rs. 100 Spent) * (Accelerated Reward Earning multiple)*Spend/100

Example – Rewards earned if you have spent Rs. 2000 on Citibank Rewards card.

  • For Citibank Rewards, Rupee Earned per Rs. 100 spent = Rs. 0.4
  • Accelerated Reward Earning : 10X on Departmental Stores
  • Rewards Earned = 10*0.4*2000/100 = Rs. 80

A few disclaimers here:

  • A few credit card companies even though offer accelerated rewards proposition but offer it only on select merchants. For e.g. Amex offer 10X rewards on its partner merchants, CITI rewards card offers it on select merchants, etc.. If you do not shop on these merchants then you won’t be earning any accelerated rewards. That’s the reason I prefer credit cards which offer a flat accelerated rewards structure so that I get the freedom of shopping wherever I want to
  • Also some of these accelerated rewards have a validity, which means have an expiry date. You are eligible for accelerated rewards only in that period.
  • Also I have a preference for Cash back as compared to reward accumulation, reason being two fold. First: Cashback impact my outflows directly as compared to rewards (where one has to go through the process of reward redemption and its benefits). Second: Its faster.

Keeping the above in mind, lets factor in the accelerated rewards to the basic rewards proposition of credit cards and figure out which card will give you the maximum advantage. Also the following will give you a chance to rate your card with respect to the cards available in the market.

The data has been collected from the sites and catalogues of different credit card companies. Since the accelerated rewards are mostly provided in specific categories, so we shall consider each category separately and figure the best card in that category.

Credit card reward points apparel

Winner – Manhattan Platinum Card

Even though it seems, owning a Citibank Rewards card will give you, Rs. 80 cash back, but that’s just superficial because the 5X rewards on Citibank card is limited to only a few stores. Lifestyle being the major one of them.For Manhattan Platinum card, even though the offer tells only about Departmental stores, it covers all kinds of retail spends. Spends in malls are covered by this offer

Credit card reward points stores

Winner – Manhattan Platinum

Again it’s a straight fight between Manhattan Platinum and Citibank Rewards. And Manhattan Platinum wins hands down.

Credit card reward points dining

Winner – Kotak Trump Card

Clearly Kotak Trump card is the clear winner. With you saving almost Rs. 600 per month if you are a heavy diner. There are a few finer points, that the total spends on Movies and Restaurants should be more than Rs. 4000. There are a few other cards, where the card issuing companies have a tie up with specific restaurants in different cities. Citibank being one of them where they have tied up with more than 200 merchants across India and offer a 20 % discount flat.

Credit card reward points fuel

Winner – Standard Chartered Titanium

Standard Chartered Platinum Rewards, Standard Chartered Titanium, IOC Titanium and ICICI Bank HPCL card are quite close in terms of the monthly earnings. But I like cashback more than earnings through reward points. Also the 5% flat cashback on any petrol pump as compared to IOC and HPCL for Citibank and ICICI bank cards respectively make Standard Chartered Card a winner in this category.

Credit card reward points movies

Winner – Standard Chartered Titanium

Standard Chartered Platinum Rewards, Standard Chartered Titanium, IOC Titanium and ICICI Bank HPCL card are quite close in terms of the monthly earnings. But I like cashback more than earnings through reward points. Also the 5% flat cashback on any petrol pump as compared to IOC and HPCL for Citibank and ICICI bank cards respectively make Standard Chartered Card a winner in this category.

Credit card reward points utility bills

Winner – Standard Chartered Titanium Card

Again , both the cards are equally good, but the additional condition of paying your bills via Citibank billpay turns my preference towards Standard Chartered Titanium card.

Carrying a similar analysis on categories of Movies and Entertainment and Utility Bills reveals that Kotak Trump card and Standard Chartered Titanium card emerge as the top card in the respective categories.

Wallet of Credit cards that one should own

Having done the hard bit of analysis, calculations and comparisons we come to the easier bit of creating a wallet of credit cards for you which will accelerate the reward earning and help you save a substantial amount over a period of time. To give you all an idea about savings that can be done by having this wallet, I have created a few scenarios and the respective savings.  One can create his/her own spend/rewards scenarios using the table below.

 

Category of Spend Name of the Card Value Proposition Monthly Spend Monthly Savings Annual Savings
Apparel Standard Chartered – Manhattan Platinum 5% Cash Back on All Departmental Stores Spend, (This includes all kinds of Retail Spends) 2,000 100 1,200
Departmental Stores Standard Chartered – Manhattan Platinum 5% Cash Back on All Departmental Stores Spend, (This includes all kinds of Retail Spends)  4,000  200  2,400
Dining Kotak Trump Card 10% Cashback on all Restaurants, 10% cashback on all restaurants  5,000  600  7,200
Fuel Standard Chartered – Titanium Card 5 % Cashback on Fuel/Telecom/Other Utility Bills  5,000  125  1,500
Movies and Entertainment Kotak Trump Card 10% Cashback on all Restaurants, 10% cashback on all restaurants  2,000  200  2,400
Utility Bills Standard Chartered – Titanium Card 5 % Cashback on Telecom/Other Utility Bills  3,500  175  2,100
 21,500  1,400  16,800

 

This is a guest post by Gaurav Thakur, who is currently working as an analyst with a mutual fund company. An IIT Kanpur alumnus, he has primarily worked in the financial services industry, working with Citibank India Credit cards for a couple of years and also spending time in Citibank’s personal loans division.” This article has appeared first on gaurav blog here.

Which credit card you have already and are you satisfied with your credit card reward points and cash back benefits ? Did you get any insights from this article on credit card rewards points ?

Days Past Due (DPD) section – What is the meaning in CIBIL Report ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

You might have seen a section in your Cibil Report which says DPD (Days Past Due). While Loan Status and Credit Score matter a lot when it comes to getting a loan approved or rejected, a big myth among people is that a clear report (without SETTLED or WRITTEN OFF status) and a credit score above 750/800 are the only two things that they need to get a loan.
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That’s not true. While a clean report and a good score are definitely primary level requirements for getting a loan approved, there are finer details which a bank looks at, before deciding if they want to give you a loan or not; and Days Past Due or DPD is one of those important metrics. Lets understand this then …

What is Days Past Due (DPD) on a CIBIL report ?

Days Past due or DPD means, that for any given month, how many months worth of payment is unpaid. And this information is for each account . Which means that if you have 3 different loans going on, then you will have DPD information for each of those accounts. For each account you can see Days past due information for each month for the last 3 years , i.e., 36 months.

You might already be aware that your cibil report contains the past 36 months of your credit information. Each and every month, your lender who is a member of CIBIL, will update the CIBIL with the latest information like Did you pay on time or not? How much outstanding loan do you have at that moment? How many months worth of loan is remaining and other micro details are shared on monthly basis by banks and lender to CIBIL. So each month, a new month’s data is added and the oldest month (36th month) is removed from the cibil report and this way a sliding window of 36 months data is available on your cibil report at any given point of time.

Example – Date 06-12 and DPD value is 90

If DPD value is 90 for a date say 06-12, it means in June 2012, the payment is due for last 90 days, which means 3 months dues! So you can now understand the the DPD in the last month (May 2012) would be 60 and for Apr 2012 would be 30.

When you default on any payment or do not make the full payment, this DPD value will start getting a number and it will be a negative thing. So if there is a cheque bounced from your side and the loan not paid on time, you can expect one entry of DPD for the latest month with value 30 – which says one month of dues are not paid. If you clear it on time before the next cycle comes, it will help you to improve your bad credit score and the DPD value for next month again will be normal, but if you do not make the payment and keep those dues , then the DPD value for the next month will increase to 60, which implies that from 2 months you have not paid the dues. See the graphic below to understand more examples of DPD

Days Past Due (DPD) example in CIBIL report

What does XXX means as DPD Value ?

There are certain values which can appear in DPD section and each of them has some meaning, however the safest values are 000 and XXX . If you have the value as 000, it means the dues are totally clear on that date and nothing is outstanding. And if the DPD value is XXX, then it simply means that bank has failed to report the data for that month to bank, and it does not impact you at all . At times instead of 000, the value can be STD which means that the dues are for less than 90 days . While any other number other than 000 is a negative thing, but make sure it does not go above 90 days , because then its super negative.

At times, some lenders also report DPD values in a different way, as per asset classification norms set by RBI. In that case, the values which appear under Days Past Due section are STD , SUB , DBT or LSS which denotes good to bad , where STD is good and LSS is the worst one. Here is what each of them denotes

 

STD (Standard) Payments are being made within 90 days. Note that any delay of more than 90 days is seen as Non Performing Assets (NPA) by banks
SUB (Sub – Standard) An Account which has remained NPA for upto 12 months
DBT (Doubt ful) The Account which has remained Sub Standard Account for a period of 12 months
LSS (Loss) An account where loss has been identified and remains uncollectible

 

Can DPD values be changed ?

There have been cases that lenders have rejected loan applications based on DPD information even though the credit report was clean and the score was quite good. And the common worry at the time is “Can’t I change my DPD information somehow?” and the answer is NO . You can’t change DPD information like you can change SETTLED or WRITTEN OFF status by taking some action. All you need to do is wait for some time and as time passes, new month information will get added to your report and old data will keep getting phased out. So if you have some bad DPD data before 12 months, then it will go out in next 24 months, and if you have some DPD data 2.5 years old, it will go out in 6 months period.

For those who like to learn through video’s, we have a 40 min course on Credit Report and Scores in detail on our Jagoinvestor Wealth Club, which will explain all the aspects of the subject in a clear manner and great detail

Did you understand the meaning of Days past due or DPD which appears in CIR (Cibil Report) ?

Cheque Truncation System – New Benchmark for Cheques in Banks

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

It might happen that your cheque’s start bouncing and do not get accepted from Jan 1, 2013 . There is a new standard in banking called as Cheque Truncation System or CTS 2010 , which all the banks have to follow now. RBI has issued a circular telling all banks that they should only process and accept those cheques which follow CTS guidelines.

What is Cheque Truncation System or CTS ?

Its just a new improved structure for chqeues and a set of guidelines which will change the way cheques are being processed and cleared. Right now, all the cheques are sent directly physical to the other bank for clearance, but with this new Cheque Truncation System guidelines, the banks will send the digital version of cheques (read scanned image) to the other bank and the clearance will happen almost same day or very fast. Some of the features of CTS cheques would be

  • It would have the wordings “please sign above this line” at right bottom
  • All CTS-2010 cheques will have a watermark with the words “CTS INDIA”, which can be seen against a light
  • A bank logo will be on cheque with a Ultra Violet Ink , which can be seen only under UV Scanners.
  • The Cheque Truncation System 2010 enabled cheques will not allow any alterations. If there is any mistakes, the cheque will be invalid
  • “payable at par at all branches of the bank in India” text will be at the bottom of all the cheques
  • There will be IFSC and MICR code on the cheque
  • You will have to sign the cheque will a darker ink, so that your signatures are valid for scanning.

If you look at these features, you can simply see that these are required for digital processing and once these Cheque Truncation System enabled cheques arrive , the whole banking system will start clearing the cheques in a must faster time. This will improve banking and save paper 🙂 . Below is a sample of cheque which fulfil CTS criteria’s.

Cheque Truncation System CTS cheque sample

SBI has already told all its customers to get new cheques because all the old cheques will become invalid , In the same way HDFC bank and ICICI bank have also told their customers to get new cheque books.

What you must do ?

1. Replace your Post Dated Cheques

If you have given any post dated cheques to someone like for your home loan payments or for some other kind of payment, then its the time to replace them with fresh cheques else it will just bounce and you might have to pay the bounce charges

Deposit any Old Cheque now

At times, we accumulate old cheques and deposit them for clearing only after many days or weeks. If you have any cheque which is to be cleared, better deposit it and encash !

A lot of banks have also asked its customers to give return back the old invalid cheques at their branch and collect new cheques, not sure why they need old cheques , why cant they issue the new cheques directly ? Also note that the cheques will be sent to the last updated address only. Learn more about CTS here .

You already have CTS-2010 compliant cheque books ?

Note that RBI has directed all banks to issue Cheque Truncation System 2010 enabled cheque books already from last many months. So it might happen that your cheque books are already complaint with those standards . So please check it once and dont rush to bank to issue you new cheque books . Like one of the reader found out that he already has the right cheque’s .

Banks like ICICI Bank and Axis Bank had already started issuing CTS-2010 compliant cheque books since last year. So please verify whether cheque book you have a already CTS-2010 before rushing to bank to get a new one. After I placed a request for new cheque book, I found that my existing cheque book issued to me in Mar-2012 was already a CTS-2010 one.

I hope you are clear about Cheque Truncation System (CTS) and how your cheques will become invalid from Jan 1,2013

Best bank in India – With survey & Customer reviews

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Which is the best bank in India? Is it yours ? In this article, we will look at the top 6 parameters which define a good bank and look at various Indian banks and how they fared on those parameters. The best way to find out how good a bank is to ask the existing account holders. So I ran a big survey on the topic of “Which is the best bank in India?” and a huge 2,418 people took that survey!

In the survey we counted how many people had a particular bank account and it was not a surprise that 76% of the market share was from the top 4 banks which were State Bank of India (SBI bank) , ICICI bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank . Rest 24% consisted of all the other banks combined. Other than this, we had also asked how long were their bank accounts . 77% of the bank accounts were at least 3 yrs old, which means that a person taking the survey had a fair understanding of his/her bank. Below is the graph showing the exact numbers

Indian banks market share

6 parameters of a Great bank

Banking is the core financial service any individual uses. There are hundreds of bank in India with millions of bank accounts and a person might have no other financial product or investment, but he will always have a bank account. One has to deal with banks all the time, be it credit card, home loan (Read Best Bank for Home Loan), auto loan, personal loans or any normal banking service, so one can not escape banking.

So its very crucial that one has a great bank that treats it’s customers well. So what defines a great bank? What we did, is define 6 parameters on which a bank can be judged.

1. Customer Care of the bank

For any issue we call our bank customer care, the quality of a bank customer care shows how much care a bank wants to take of their customers. Customer care is what you would need a lot of times and it’s of great importance in choosing a bank. This is where the maximum number of interactions happen.

2. Core/Basic Banking services provided by the bank

Core banking means the real banking services which are the base services. Facilities like cheque issue, money transfer from one account to another, Demand Drafts, Debit card issue, Interest paid on the account and other core activities. These are the services which have to be there no matter when, other advanced things are not present. These services form 90% of what you need from the bank. Ergo, these banking services are a must.

3. Advanced Banking services provided by the bank

Advanced services are those banking services which are over and above the core banking services. There are the latest technologies which the bank could have adopted. Some of the examples of these are providing IMPS money transfer service, Prepaid recharge and various other such add-on like services. They are “good to have” services, but not must have services. In this era of technology, it’s a prudent thing to have a bank which offers these kinds of services.

4. Online Facilities provided by the bank

The face of banking is changing, A lot of bank customers have totally shifted to online services. Its only the in the worst case scenarios that one visits the bank physically. Else, everything is done online . So do go look at the bank’s online facilities. For example, when I needed a Demand Draft for some purpose, all I did was to put a request to create the DD in my ICICI Bank through net banking and opted to collect it from the branch in next 2-3 days. I got a notification on sms and on email when the DD was ready and I could go collect it anytime. So the next time I passed by my bank, it took me just 10 min to collect it. No time wasted! There was also an option to get it delivered at my home at nominal charge. Its generally said that HDFC Netbanking and ICICI Netbanking is one of the best among banks in India. Things like these matter a lot in today’s fast paced world where you dont have much time to go to bank physically.

5. Transparency maintained by the bank

This is a crucial aspect. How transparent is your bank to you when it comes to charges, facilities, penalties and the offers it gives you on some services? Is your bank too opaque? Does it make life easy for you or tough? One simple example that comes to mind is regarding opening of a PPF account in SBI. There have been so many instances where the SBI bank officials have not been very transparent regarding the rules. Then there was one instance where Axis bank was not very transparent to one of our readers when taking a home loan and actually sold him a policy without his permission. So it really is a big parameter to look at, in a bank.

6. Overall Attitude of the bank towards its customers

And finally, at the end of the day, you have to look at your bank attitude towards you as customer. Does it really treat you as king or trash? How do you get treated when you walk inside the bank? How are you treated on phone with customer care? Does you bank understand that your time is precious and tries to help you, or just looks at you as just another target?

Which is the best bank in India & their rankings ?

In the survey, we had asked from people the 3 things

  • Name of their bank
  • How old is their banking relationship
  • How do they rank their bank on these above 6 parameters

Based on the 2418 answers in the survey, we have created the following result table which shows you how well each bank fared on each parameter. We will look at total 25 banks , the top 10 banks in India and then next 15 banks . “Very Bad” equals 1 and “Very good” equals 5 marks.  The table shows the average marks obtained by a particular bank . At some places you can see the green background which shows that the bank was in top 5 position. This is done for top 10 banks and next 15 banks also .

Best Banks in India

Top Indian Banks as per Survey

If you look at the above table, and look at the banks which have got the average of more than 4 marks as total, we get total 14 banks with more than 4 marks. Note that the names are considered as per survey results only and based on real feedback.

  • ICICI Bank
  • HDFC Bank
  • Axis Bank
  • CitiBank
  • IDBI Bank
  • Kotak Bank
  • Corporation Bank
  • Oriental Bank of Commerce
  • Syndicate Bank
  • Andhra Bank
  • Yes Bank
  • Standard Chartered Bank
  • Karnataka Bank
  • HSBC Bank

15 Real life Experiences from Bank Customers

Here are some of the comments made by people on their banks in the survey. I am putting some of them here for you to read.

Rakesh say’s – “I observed that most of the times in ICICI Bank, customers are taken for granted…I dont see it as an attitude problem with the individuals working there…it has happened in many of the branches I visited…Infact their Bank by Phone assistance is more courteous than the actual working class”

Aditya Karnik says – “One of the branch of HDFC Bank in Nashik city was having some issues with system and hence all cash transactions were stopped. Executives at the counter couldn’t give satisfactory answers as to what led to the issue and rudely asked customers to go to some other branch within city to transact. Well I can understand systemic issue but communication could have been better.”

Mahesh says – “Once my mother, aged 50, had gone to Union Bank of India, Chembur Branch for submitting a form for FD and by mistake she had signed below the dotted line. For that one of the lady staff over there humiliated my mother in front of everyone. My mother came home with a teary eye. We were so pissed off by the way they treated such an elderly woman that we shifted our account to another branch. Some one from the bank said that everyone in the bank is fed up of her temperament and irrational behavior.”

Arindam says – “A recent incident occurred when I need my new address to be updated. Normally, Customers are asked to visit the Bank to update all the records (In the year 2012). However, in this case, I was asked to raise a Service Request through online net banking and the issue has been resolved within 24 hours and I have received my current month’s e-statement with the new address. That’s a fabulous support by ICICI Bank.”

Pradeep says – “I asked for Home loan amortization through e-mail. They did not reply. After 2-3 e-mails, I wrote a strong e-mail to DGM and then got a reply from SBI. Most staff do not know simple rules and regulation on Home loan prepayment. They are also ignorant of latest decisions. This is terrible.”

Nilufer says – “Whenever we need to contact the servicing branch of HDFC Bank, their numbers are connected to the customer care numbers, where 8 out of 10 times there is only a machine talking to you.. There is no one in person who one can talk to about an urgent query.. this pisses me off no end… At-last i had to call one of my previous contacts (who has now got transferred from my branch) on his cell, to get the info on my query. In an emergency, only a machine talking to you, is no 24×7 service which these banks claim to give.. Forget after office hours, even during office hours we dont get a human being taking care of us on those lines.. atlast i had to call the branch manager on his cell to get things sorted out… pathetic customer care service where only a machine is left to service its customers with that no ending options that it keeps blabbing out…” 

Subradas says – “Whenever I talk to bank officials they try to bullie. Either they knowingly do it or because of their ignorance but they do it. They try to bluff at the first go. It seems that Kotak Bank has recruited the worst manpower of the industry. They have tried to shift/do most of the work on back end making the process time consuming. They have delegated hardly any power to their executives sitting in the branch. To close an account it may take 7 days to more than a month where as it takes less than an hour in most of the PSU banks.”

Devendra says – “While my son was proceeding to the United States for higher education, I wanted a certificate from SBI that i could meet more than Rs. 8 lakhs for his studies. Since I was earning more than this amount and also had money in my account, I thought it was quite easy task. Yet the bank refused to issue the  certificate. I then approached Corporation Bank and got the certificate.”

Sumit says – “They had called me to give free Financial Planning advice from a CFP. The fixed a time for meeting and the adviser did not appeared on that day. I did not expected this from a bank like HDFC. Post that, there has been few more appointments taken and shuffled and I haven’t met any adviser yet. (incident took 1 month back.)”

Rahul says – “I wanted to prepay the Education loan taken from Andhra bank, Howrah branch. I had to travel to the branch more than 10 times to get my loan account closed even after making the full payment. The total process took me over 3 months.On the last day, i sent my brother with an authorized letter to collect the hypothetical LIC policies. They confirmed earlier that they would deliver it to him but denied on the spot. Ultimately, i had to rush to the bank in high fever to get those documents. I literally scolded them at this behavior. Another big dismay was the interest rebate- The loan policy document mentioned that a 50 bps rebate in overall interest would be allowed if interest payments are regular. To regularize interest payments, i opened another savings a/c in the bank through which they can collect interest payments every month.

I also gave written application for direct debit from my savings a/c to loan a/c and ensured that there was adequate balance in the savings a/c at all times. Yet, i was not given any rebate in interest. As mentioned earlier, i had to scold them on the last day- you can easily understand the scene at that point of time. I preferred to get the a/c closed asap irrespective of the interest rebate. Meanwhile the banks Branch manager and Loan dept. staff was changed twice and the position remained empty for more than 6 months.

Anand says – “I required a locker, hence requested my Banker (BOB) for the same which they ensured to allot as soon as they get any vacancy. Within a few days i got a call from them confirming the availability of the locker and asked me to come to Bank for fulfilling the formalities and accordingly allotted me the same forthwith.I was really happy with their promptness.”

Gopal says – “Citibank gives you update almost immediately regarding the tranactions taking place in your bank account. Once my cheque was dishonored due to the year I placed on the cheque. The concerned branch immediately called me and I made the payment to the party by other channel.”

Ravindra says – “Several years ago, the then Manager of the IDBI Bank branch, where I have my account was habitually rude with his staff. He used to rebuke them within the hearing of customers. Naturally, this caused us considerable discomfort, as would have to deal with these staff within minutes after being forced to overhear the unpleasantness. I sent an email to the then MD, who sent a senior officer to enquire into the issue. The Manager was more discreet after that, and the staff worked better when the stress and tension was reduced.”

Ramprasad says – “Karnataka Bank is a good bank, but their customer service at the branch level or over phone is among the worst. I had a problem with using the Internet Banking Service and had to reapply for the passwords but even after i was charged Rs50 for internet banking password re-issuance the passwords never reached me or the bank branch. They told me to reapply once again, and the branch was very non-cooperative in their service including the branch manager.”

Karthik says – “Most of the times I didn’t have to approach their customer care. The times I had to, they were extremely courteous and quick in resolution. My first card was rejected because I didn’t have a CIBIL score then, having come fresh out of college. I was able to speak and reason with their Regional Manager, Credit and get my application application approved. Very progressive and sensible rules! at CitiBank”

Conclusion and Disclaimer

The above survey will help you take a better decision in choosing the best bank for your banking needs. Note that the above survey was taken by 2418 people who are the readers of this blog. This survey only represents the net savvy population of the country and it should not be taken as a representation of the whole country. The views of people outside this blog might clash with the findings of this survey. Also the above survey only focuses on the banking aspects and not things like home loan, personal loan etc.

Here’s a crucial aspect of the survey you need to understand. The above results are average of many views, hence its natural that there are many bad experiences with the banks which are considered best in the category and there can be many good experiences for those banks which are not part of these top banks in India.

We are soon going to add a full video course on banking in our jagoinvestor wealth club. Incase you feel you need to understand banking terms and terminologies, you should join the club.

What do you think about this survey? Do you agree with the results or not? Was it useful for you ? Do you feel that yours is the best bank in India ?

CIBIL Score 2.0 – An Improved version of Credit Scoring

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

CIBIL has recently come up with Cibil Transunion Score 2.0 which it calls an improved version of the CIBIL Credit Score. This new Credit Score will help in a better identification of new borrowers (having credit history of less than 6 months) and help classify them into risky and not-risky categories.

More about CIBIL Score 2.0

The biggest change here is that the CIBIL Score 2.0 is for new borrowers who have a short credit history, i.e. 6 months. So now there will be two classes of borrowers

1. Less than 6 months of credit history 

Any borrower having less than 6 months of credit history earlier used to get a score of 0. But with CIBIL 2.0 , they will get a score in between 1 to 5, where 1 represents high risk of default and 5 denotes least risk of default. This score between 1-5 will depend on parameters like 90 days overdue in any given month (for last 24 months), credit seeking activity (number of loan enquiries you make), type of credit (secured or unsecured) and the demographic (age , location etc.)

This move is going to help a lot of people who are very new to credit and have recently taken credit cards or have taken some kind of loan and need another loan. There have been instances that due to their short credit tenure, they didn’t have any credit score and a lot of bank rejected their applications for loan just because they didnt have one.

2. More than 6 months of credit history 

For those who have more than 6 months of credit of any kind, for them the credit score will be in range of 300 to 900 score, just like earlier. However, it seems like this scoring method will consider only higher scores like 800+ as the better score. As per this firstpost article, it says that an old score of 751-800 will now be equivalent to something like 662-697 in the new score version .

For borrowers with more than six months of credit history, the old scoring criteria 300-900 remains, but for the lower score you get. For instance, the old score of 751-800 will be equal to 662-697 in the present one.

The newer version is initially made available only for CIBIL’s 862 member banks and financial institutions, after which it will be available for the customers as well, he said, without giving an exact timeline for the completion of the process.

Cibil Score 2.0 is a better Score

This new CIBIL score is said to be a better indicator of someone repayment capability. It has been designed keeping in mind the Indian market and the way consumer behavior is changing from last some years.

 “CIBIL TransUnion Score 2.0 predicts risk more powerfully as this scoring model has been customized for the changing Indian market and consumer behavior. This scoring model will enable banks to better identify good customers, thereby enabling them to provide credit to more consumers and increase credit penetration and financial inclusion in the country.”

– said Mr. Arun Thukral, Managing Director, CIBIL

The new CIBIL score is tested by the company old random data and it seems to identify the risky customers in a more better way. Here is a snapshot of results I found out on transunion website. You don’t really need to understand this graph, just get that this identifies risky customers in an improved manner.

Old vs New CIBIL Score 2.0

Now, The credit institutions that have adopted the new scoring model will decide on customer’s loan application based on this new score. So it would be interesting to watch out the credit score banks ask for giving loans .

What do you think about this new cibil score 2.0 and the changes which has taken place ?

We are happy to share that we have got a great response to our newly launched Jagoinvestor Wealth Club some days back . There are already 140 members and we are giving the discounted pricing to only 300 people . We are excited to share that we are moving towards our vision of creating a great dedicated closed community. Join the club if you feel you need to be present there.

How is interest on saving bank account is calculated ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

A lot of people do not know interest is calculated on their savings bank account.In this article I will explain all the aspects of interest on a savings bank account. Earlier all the banks had the same interest on their saving bank accounts, which was 4% , so a person had no choice in terms of interest rate, you would have got the same return with any bank. But, RBI has recently de-regulated interest on saving bank account and now banks can decide the interest they want to pay on saving bank. This has had a positive impact for customers, because now due to competition, banks like Kotak Bank and Yes Bank have started offering higher interest rates like 6% or 7% and using that parameter to attract lot of customers.

How is interest on saving bank is Calculated ?

Coming to the main question, the procedure to calculate saving bank interest, we will first see how it was done earlier and then we will see how its done now.

Old Method

Earlier, Banks used to pay 3.5% interest on the minimum balance between 10th and last day of the month. This was not a very customer friendly method because if you kept Rs 5,00,000 in your saving account for the whole month and on 26th, & let’s say you take out 4,90,000. You would have got interest only on Rs 10,000 @3.5% , which is just Rs 28.

New Method

Now a new method is used to calculate the interest on saving bank account which is very fair.  From April 1, 2010 , as per the RBI circular on new guidelines on saving bank interest calculation; this is the rule for interest calculation.

“The interest has to be calculated on daily basis for the closing day balance” – It’s that simple. So let’s say the interest rate is 4% , then you will get interest @4% on daily basis for your closing balance and it will get accumulated , but it will be paid back to your account only after 3 or 6 months. While RBI wants all the banks to pay the interest every quarter, each bank has its own criteria , like ICICI Bank pays it twice a year right now in Sept and March.

So now, if you see the same example we discussed above, with the new method of interest calculation, the interest will be 4% on 5 lacs (Rs 1,369) for 25 days (from start of month to 25th) and on 10,000 for next 5 days (Rs 5) (26th – 30th) . So the interest would be total Rs 1,374 . In the old method it was just Rs 28 . Can you see the gigantic difference?

Saving Bank Interest Calculation

High Interest on Saving bank from some banks

You must have seen some banks are now offering 6-7% of interest rate and they have dual interest rates, like 5.5% below 1 lac and 6% above 6% (in case of Kotak Bank) , which means that you will be getting 5.5% on the amount below 1 lac and only on the difference amount above 1 lac, you will get 6% interest . So if you have a balance of Rs 1,50,000 in your bank (lets say kotak bank) , you will get 5.5% on 1,00,000 and 6% on 50,000 .

You should be more interested in interest below 1 lac

If you see the average amount kept in saving bank account , it should not cross 1 lac for most of the people . While there are people who park their money in saving bank account for some time, but it does not happening with most people. So if some bank is giving higher interest for amounts above 1 lac, that’s a secondary benefit for you, not the basis of selection of bank. Because if you are anyways ready to keep a balance of more than 1 lac, why not just create a short term deposit online,which can be broken anyways or just activate your sweep in account option, so that an amount above a target amount automatically gets converted to FD and earn more money.

Do you now understand how interest on saving bank account is calculated? Will it help you manage your bank money in a better way?