Personal Banking

Today was my tryst with my bank accounts. Have been getting loads of emails and book posts from the banks on a monthly basis, but never sat down to know what they were.

During my school days it was a kind of status symbol or say, some kind of novelty to have a bank account. As such there was no need for me, and a few others like me, as students to open and maintain a savings bank account. Still some of us had opened a savings bank accounts way back in the late eighties or the early nineties, when we were still around Class VII or VIII. I opened my first-ever bank account with the Indian Overseas Bank. The branch was close to our home and the account number had just four digits. One needed to update the passbook regularly. But after the few initial years I never looked in that direction. However on knowing that the bank chaps cut some extra annual charges for non-operative accounts, I made a trip to the bank to withdraw some money and keep my transaction counter on. Gave the withdrawal slip; but the cashier would not give me cash. He said I had not signed properly. I signed again and yet he was not convinced. Foreseeing all this signature-mismatch dramas /traumas, I had just written down my name as signature when I had opened the account as a kid. But quite naturally, my handwriting had improved..er..changed over a period of time. My handwriting as a teen did not match and probably was not supposed to match my hand writing as a kid. Therefore though I just wrote my name this time also, the cashier strongly believed that I was a 420 case. We had moved into the manager’s room by now. Luckily, I finally got out with the cash in hand – but only after explaining the manager and the cashier the metabolic/biological/physical/chemical changes that have taken place in my body and mind over the years and consequent to all these, how my hand writing had also ended up changing a bit!

Among many other peculiarities BITS, Pilani offered, we were asked to open bank accounts for our fees, mess bill purposes etc either with the UCO Bank or SBBJ (State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur). Till then, I didn’t know these banks even existed. The former, I learnt much later, originally belonged to the Birlas. My father had chosen UCO for convenience sake as the ultra-modern city where I come from probably did not support a few banks and therefore ruled out the options of depositing cash locally in those banks. But the UCO Bank account was a great blessing in disguise, for the simple reason that while the SBBJ counter was inside the academic buildings, the UCO counter was much away and situated close to a redi. This ensured that even during the personal recession times one need not get inside the academic buildings. All one needed to do was just wait for the UCO account to get replenished from home; once it is done take a quick walk, inject some liquidity into the system, and before getting back to the hostel room ensure that the economy does well by having a refreshing shikanji at the nearby redi.

The start of the next stage of my life saw my number of bank accounts – double. Symbi, Pune wanted us to have an account with Bank of Maharastra for the fees purposes. The local ICICI sales team sat outside the college building and coaxed most of us with students-savings account package. They offered a lot of numbers and sentences. We fell, not for those, but for the one most exciting thing they offered us. I guess it was around July 2002 – I opened the bank envelope and took out that shiny plastic thing: a Debit card. A small step for the bank, a giant leap for me! No looking bank since then. Naturally, the BoM account was orphaned for the major part of the year. ICICI ATMs sprang up all over the country. We got fresh notes from the ATMs. Fresh money smelled good. Nothing but just a plastic card came between us and purchases. Another main attraction of the ATM was one could also deposit cash in any other account with the same bank. This was of a great use. We had the power to indulge in a few bailout programs too.

The status of my new HDFC bank account showed “salary” as I moved on to the next stage of my life in 2004. Internet banking facility was a major plus now. Unlike the ICICI ATMs, theses HDFC ATMs were never crowded. They had done a fine supply-demand stuff that in spite of the less number of ATMs one did not have a long queue outside the ATM. Salary account + Mumbai = Danger. Cash regularly came into the account. Cash regularly went out of the account. Internet banking was an excellent catalyst for this process. Till this day I admire this account with the Fort branch and I try to keep this alive. Lets see how far it goes.

September 2005. Within five minutes after getting out of my hometown’s ICICI branch, my dad’s mobile beeps: “Your account XXXX etc has been closed successfully”. Those guys sitting at the bank’s HO had decided to charge me more annually as I was no more a “student” and I was not maintaining the quarterly average of about Rs.10,000 or so. I was neither an “employed” now; and 10K was and is – big. ICICI had lots of processes in place. I never imagined a bank account could be closed in a matter of minutes.

I got the golden chance to open an account with a branch cuddled in the lower ranges of the Himalayas. SBI, Mussourie. August 2007. Salary account, once again. After the initial excitement of getting paid by the “President of India”, so to say, I realised: Government + Salary = Danger. A danger of a different kind. Like before, money still regularly came in and went out of the account. But there was a fantastic mismatch between coming and going. Whatever comes, definitely goes. Whatever goes, need not have necessarily come!

A few months down the line, Axis Bank, Nagpur welcomed me. Further down the line the Sixth Pay Commission report is implemented retrospectively. Internet banking has developed a lot. There are no charges for inter-bank ATM usages. There is no need to quarrel over a signature anymore!

Now I know why I get loads of bank statements.