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Keep your bank in check

My bank refuses to issue a cheque book over the counter and insists on sending it by courier.

Keep your bank in check


Pushpa Girimaji

My bank refuses to issue a cheque book over the counter and insists on sending it by courier. This causes me lot of inconvenience because of the delays in the dispatch and delivery of the cheque. This month, for example, I had to pay late fee charges to the electricity department because I did not have a cheque leaf to pay within the ‘pay by date’. What are my rights here? Can I seek a refund of the late charge from my bank?

You must ask the bank to refund the late fee paid by you to the power supply undertaking. In fact you must insist on the bank compensating you because the bank is not only guilty of sending you the cheque book late, but also of violating a clear directive of the banking regulator on the issuance of cheque books.

If you look at the latest Master Circular on Customer Service issued by the Reserve Bank of India on July 1, 2015, you will realize that the bank is flouting the RBI instructions, which clearly says that banks should issue cheque books over the counter, if requested by the customer.

This is what the Master circular says on the issue: “ The procedure of disallowing depositors to collect the cheque book at the branch and insisting on dispatching the cheque book by courier after forcibly obtaining a declaration from the depositor that a dispatch by the courier is at depositor's risk is an unfair practice. Banks should refrain from obtaining such undertakings from depositors and ensure that cheque books are delivered over the counters on request to the depositors or his authorized representative”.

So quote this to the Nodal officer of the bank and tell him or her that (a) the bank has to make good the loss suffered by you as a result of the bank’s deficient service and (b)the bank has to issue a cheque book to you over the counter, whenever you need it.. If the bank still does not comply, complain to the RBI and also the Banking Ombudsman.

My bank officials do not accept cash deposits over the counter and insist on my depositing it through the ATMs. Since I deposit large amounts of cash as part of my business, I find this difficult. Similarly, I do not like the idea of putting the cheques issued to be me in the drop box because once earlier, the bank lost it and I had a lot of problem getting another cheque from the issuer. What do I do?

There are clear RBI instructions on this too, wherein the regulator clearly says that banks cannot force customers to deposit cash and cheques through ATMs and drop boxes respectively. I will quote them below for your reference. Use this to get your bank to change its ways –if it does not, complain to the RBI, to the Ombudsman and lastly, I must also tell you that there are banks and banks and move your account to a bank that is customer friendly and also complies with the directives of the regulator. Here are the two instructions on the subject, mentioned in the Master Circular of July 1, 2015.

Under the heading “5.9 Acceptance of cash over the counter” , the RBI says that some banks have introduced certain products that do not allow customers to deposit cash over the counter , but only through ATMs and have also incorporated a clause in the terms and conditions to this effect. Saying that “banks cannot design any product which is not in tune with the basic tenets of banking”, the regulator says that incorporation such terms constitutes an unfair trade practice .

Similarly, it says that both the drop box facility and the facility for acknowledgement of the cheques at regular collection counters should be available to the customers and “ no branch should refuse to give an acknowledgement if the customer tenders the cheques at the counters” or compel l the customer to drop the cheque in the drop box. It also says further that in order to ensure that customers are aware of the RBI instructions on this issue, banks should display on the cheque drop box itself , in English, Hindi and the local language the message that “customers can also tender the cheques at the counter and obtain acknowledgement on the pay-in slips”.

The Master circular also advises banks to make “absolutely fool proof arrangements accounting for the number of instruments each time the box is opened so that there are no disputes and the customer’s interests are not compromised”. In other words, the banks should ensure that cheques deposited by the customers in the drop box are not misplaced or lost.

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