Since we are now riding the crest of the global wave of progress and technological advancement, we are leaving many things, even from the recent past, far behind in our journey. Good old banking that not only relied heavily on paper for every tiny transaction but held it sacrosanct for every record and document has almost freed itself from this dependency.
Now it is the era of the hard disc and the plastic card. Banks, even the smaller ones with only a regional presence have started discouraging their customers from using cheque books to draw money and are urging them to make use of electronic debit cards thus saving themselves much effort and expense.
Sometimes this is a bane, especially to illiterate persons who find it difficult to operate the machines often relying on the assistance of others who can defraud them in the disguise of good Samaritans. The widespread use of debit cards is also slowly but surely making queues longer at almost all ATMs thus defeating the purported motive of making banking faster and easier. Yet debit cards can indeed be seen as a great boon since they allow access to our money at odd locations and at odd times freeing us from the need to rush to our parent bank often in a desperate bid to beat the closing hour.
Since anybody can end up needing money unexpectedly at an odd hour, the ever ready plastic debit or credit card and the always open ATM can save much misery, distress and often embarrassment even during a bank holiday. Electronic access to cash round – the - clock also frees us from the danger of keeping large sums of money either at home or on our persons while on a holiday without the fear of loss or theft.
But there is a flip side to this happy situation, especially in our country if we happen to rely heavily on the assurance that if we have the necessary funds in our accounts we can access them at any time of the day or night as a matter of right.
While banking is governed by some very strict pro - customer rules in most developed countries, here in India such rules, even if in existence, are seldom implemented thus making them almost useless. Most large banks usually outsource the maintenance and refilling of their ATMs to service agencies and as a result they almost completely absolve themselves of any responsibility in the event of any malfunction or even complete breakdown of service.
Just the other day there was a report of an ATM which dispensed damaged currency notes with the bank manager simply refusing to help in the matter although it is the legal responsibility of the bank to ensure us access to our funds when we need them. A friend of mine who handles the transport of goods very recently had the unpleasant experience of his debit card failing to be recognised by any of the ATMs of his own bank and other banks too when he had to make a payment to one of his transporters far away from his parent branch.
When he explained the problem to the truck driver, he outright accused him of trying to dodge and delay the payment due to unavailability of funds. He was given the option of riding in the truck to his bank from where he then drew the required sum of money through a withdrawal slip and cleared himself of the stigma and embarrassment of being a dodger. When he complained to his bank, the manager simply told him that it was a technical problem that had to be sorted out by his higher - ups.
On another occasion, he ventured to visit Chennai with a limited supply of hard cash in his pocket but with the assurance that his plastic card would come in handy when needed. Most unexpectedly the card failed to function and let him down very badly forcing him to cut a sorry figure before his own wife and children who had looked forward to a happy time of shopping and sightseeing.
Very often due to an error in inputting the code or due to some malfunction the ATM card is swallowed by the machine, which is the end of the trip for the owner. Recovering a captured card is no easy job and often takes many days and many trips to your bank. It is therefore wise to steer clear of such spoil - sport ATMs and select one which has the mechanism of reading the card with a swipe through an external reader without the need to insert it fully into the machine. You would do well to know the locations of a few such user - friendly ATMs in your immediate neighbourhood and also in the vicinity of the areas you happen to frequent.
Another very distressing situation is when the over - milked and thus cash - strapped machine tells you that it is unable to process the sum desired by you and asks you to seek a smaller amount. This happens especially during weekends at places thronged by cash - hungry tourists when you are yourself far from home and your own bank. The question that arises now is how much smaller this new request should be. On many occasions I have had to place nearly half a dozen smaller requests before the machine like a stingy boss finally decided that I was worthy of the measly amount it was ready to dole out.
The best policy is never to rely completely on the good moods of ATMs which can be quite temperamental and always make it a point never to run out of your reserve funds especially if you are on tour. Since these are the days of core banking where we can operate our bank accounts with a cheque leaf at any branch all over the country, it is sensible to carry your good old cheque book with you when you travel. I always carry a couple of cheque leaves in my wallet. This precaution is a great reassurance and it serves two purposes. One, it bails me out when my card lets me down and two; it saves my bank account when someone asks me for a loan unexpectedly. I can be as generous as I need to seem and issue a self cheque for an amount which far surpasses my bank balance and leave the place as quickly as I can!
