Don’t withdraw cash from other bank’s ATMs

This is the story published in the Hindu Businessline. I am publishing here as this problem is highly relevant now and I myself undergoing trauma after tried to withdraw cash from ICICI bank’s ATM from my HDFC Bank A/c.

The promise of ‘Free access to all ATMs for bank customers’ across the country was expected to revolutionise customer experience.

(The RBI had promised an expanded access to bank ATMs from April 1 this year).

Three months later, it is turning out to be a nightmare for many customers as banks still haven’t got their act together.

Just try getting cash out of an ATM of a bank (where you don’t have an account). It will be nothing short of a miracle if your transaction goes through smoothly. Often your request is turned down — for a variety of operational reasons. Bankers do admit that there are compatibility issues remaining to be sorted out. For instance, different banks have different limits on the amounts that you can draw.

In the normal course, if your ATM request gets turned down, you would just resign yourself to this disappointment and quietly look for your own tried and trusted bank’s ATM. Ah! If only life were that simple. As you will find soon, the problem doesn’t end there. You may not get the cash — but your card swipe may have still deducted the balance in your account.

Now try telling your bank or the other bank (from whose ATM you tried to draw cash) about this and see how they make you run from pillar to post. And they just won’t let you register a complaint. Listen to this traumatic experience:

Says Mr Ramasubramanian, a Savings Bank account holder in SBI, ‘I went to draw cash from the SBI dispenser near my house. As the cash dispenser was ‘out of order’, I opted to draw from the IOB point located near by. When I punched the amount, it displayed ‘High amount’. I returned home to check my balance on the Net and found that my account was debited, but the machine had not dispensed cash. I rushed to the Indian Overseas Bank branch in Mandavelli (in Chennai), only to be told that I would have to report the matter to the bank in which I hold an account. When I explained my predicament to an SBI official, he asked me to send my representation to the home branch (where I had initially opened my account). Incidentally, I am now working in Chennai, but I had opened the account in an SBI branch in Bhubaneshwar, my first place of posting.’

SBI officials, when contacted, said “core banking is only for transaction and some of the other facilities that we offer. Such complaints are outside the purview of CBS. The customer will have to lodge his complaint in the home branch.”

Weekend woes

Mr Ramasubramanian is not alone. The plight of Mr Mahendran (also an SBI customer) sounds worse. He had, on a Saturday, tried to withdraw cash from an IDBI ATM located near his residence in vain. He then tried at the Axis Bank machine, only to be told by the security personnel that the ATM was rejecting cards of other banks. He then tried with the Canara Bank ATM. “The message read ‘Transaction cancelled’. So I went in search of an SBI dispenser, and found to my dismay that my account had been debited. Since all this happened during the weekend, I had to wait till Monday to represent the matter. An IDBI official asked me to sort this out with SBI, and at SBI, they were furious because I used the ATM of another bank. After heated arguments, I was asked to give a complaint in writing.”

So be cautioned when you decide to draw cash from an ATM of some other bank. It probably is worth walking/driving a little further in search of an ATM of the bank in which you hold an account.

The RBI needs to intervene immediately, if this initiative is not to come unstuck.

Reliance Money NEW % Brokerage Structure

Image by BBPANTONE via Flickr

% Brokerage Structure

Delivery Margin Options

Turnover Brokerage Turnover Brokerage Premium Turnover Brokerage (In Rs.) on Both legs

Delivery More then 2.5 Cr 0.15%
Margin 50 Cr. Or More 0.015%
Option Premium 25 Lacs Or More 50

More then 2.5 Cr 0.15%
25 Cr. To 50 Cr. 0.020%
25 Lacs Or More 50

50 Lacs to 2.5 Cr. 0.20%
10 Cr. To 25 Cr. 0.025%
10 Lacs To 25 Lacs 60

25 Lacs to 50 Lacs 0.30%
5 Cr. To 10 Cr. 0.030%
5 Lacs To 10 Lacs 70

10 Lacs to 50 Lacs 0.40%
2 Cr. To 5 Cr. 0.040%
2 Lacs To 5 Lacs 80

Less then 10 Lacs * 0.45%
Less then 2 Cr. * 0.050%
Less than 2 Lacs * 100

* DEFAULT SLAB

Client will be moved from Default Slab to a lower slab according to the sliding scale table on achieving any turnover condition; either in Delivery, Margin Or in Option

SMS BASED SERVICE FOR TAX CHALLAN STATUS

Image by Brent and MariLynn via Flickr

Tax Information Network (TIN) hosted by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) on behalf of Income Tax Department (ITD) gives you a facility to verify whether the banks have correctly uploaded the details of your tax deposit to ITD through SMS.

SMS based verification

The procedure for availing this facility is as under:

1. Send an SMS to 575758 with a message containing the word CSI followed by a space and CIN provided by the respective Bank at the time of making the Direct tax payment and the amount.

2. Challan Identification Number (CIN) consists of BSR Code of Collecting Branch (seven digit), Challan Tender Date (DDMMYYYY) and Challan Serial No (length less than or equal to 5 digit).

3. The amount is an optional field. If you provide the amount in the SMS you would get the confirmation whether the amount uploaded by bank matches with the amount paid by you.

4. Each of BSR code, Tender date, the challan serial number and amount should be separated by commas

For e.g., if the tax payer input “CSI 0510001,11032009,5,5000” where in

“0510001” is the BSR code of the collecting branch,

“11032009” is the Challan tender date,

“5” is the Challan serial number and

“5000” is the amount paid by the taxpayer.

The tax payer will get the information against which TAN/PAN the payment has been accounted with the confirmation whether amount entered is matched or not. 

(This is an illustrative CIN, actual CIN should be provided in the SMS).

There will be special charges for these SMS. These charges may vary from one mobile service-provider to another. The charge structure can be obtained from the concerned service-provider.

Online Challan Status Inquiry

You can also get the status of your CIN from www.tin-nsdl.comunder the section Challan Status Inquiry.

How to open Google Notebook in Firefox 3.5 and Chrome?

Image via CrunchBase

Recently Google stopped developing Google Notebook and not permitting to open new accounts. But old users are still permitted to use this service. With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that's accessible from any computer.To access the full-page view, just click on the Open in full page link in your mini Google Notebook, or log in directly at www.google.com/notebook. But new Firefox 3.5 doesn’t support Notebook addon. But without addon, you can still access your mini notebook.

Steps

1. Open firefox or chrome
2. Bookmark this link : http://www.google.com/notebook/onpage?client=gnotesff&v=1.0.0.22
3. Then click that new bookmark. You can get the mini notebook.

Gmail is out of beta

Official Google Blog: Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)
Google officially announced that Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — both enterprise and consumer versions — are now out of beta.

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This post is written by R.John Christy for www.investchips.com.