Bank at Miao

I went to open a joint account in a bank. It took me a week to go through the formalities. The first process is with the operational officer. His requirements where plenty. He asked for address proof. I took saving account passbook as stated. It was not accepted and reproduced something else. Then photographs – 2 required. I had only one. Just to pass through this officer I ran for 4 days!

 

The next process is to get the account information entered. That took two days. The first day he said will spend for entering and then we can pick up the next day. When we went the next day, the staff kept asking us to wait and wait. We waited for about an hour in the morning. He asked for further wait. Then we decided to come again in the afternoon. When we went, he was actually trying to join my name to my friend’s account, which we don’t want. We clarified and waited further. Only at 4.30 pm our account was created and left our initial deposit of Rs 1,000 with him. But the passbook was not available.

 

While waiting for the opening of our account, a friend from Shillong happen to dropped in and we chatted for a while on the differences of formalities of SBI with other private banks like HDFC, AXIS etc. The private banks even provide services to come at office/home to open accounts. Even if we visit at their bank, they provide quick services. Quite a difference in operational style.

 

I look forward to a day when a private bank will arrive at Miao to compete with the existing bank.