Cash @ POS! SBI Cars Replace ATMs to Dispense Cash
Mangaluru: State Bank of India, have come forward to ease out some of the challenges being faced by public on availability of currencies for day-to-day transactions post demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. While various measures have been taken by the government and banking industry to ensure that there is least inconvenience to the public, some initial teething problems are being faced in the changeover period due to recalibration required in the existing ATMs and the sudden spurt in the requirement.
People walking towards the ATM located inside the KMC Dental College (which was out of service due to shortage of currency) on Balmatta Road were in for a pleasant surprise, when they came across a State Bank of India car which was meant to help them withdraw cash. Thanks to this initiative by SBI, the Cash @ POS car helped many citizens customers withdraw Rs 2000. An amount of only Rs 2,000 a day per person in cash can be dispensed against swiping of debit card from these cars through Point Of Sales(POS) machines of SBI.
It is learnt that around the nation, many banks have come forward with mobile ATM vans and cars to dispense cash, since there has been quite a few problems faced by the customers with the ATM machines every where. With these cash dispensing cars launched by SBI, it has been little easier for the bank customers to get cash faster, but they are not happy with the one Rs 2000 currency note they get when they withdraw that amount as the cash limit per day. Susan, a student of KMC who received her Rs 2000 currency speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” Although it was easy to get the cash faster than staying in long queues at the ATMs, but I am not happy with his big currency of Rs 2000, because not many businesses accept them since they don’t have enough smaller bills to give change back. I have no idea as to how I am going to make use of this Rs 2000 note. I guess, it something better than nothing.
Also speaking to Team Mangalorean, Bernard D’Souza, a retired bank clerk at SBI, now hired to handle Cash @ POS inside SBI cars said, ” The response has been great after SBI started this service. Daily we dispense around Rs 2 lakh through this service between 10 am-6pm. Although SBI isn’ making any profit out of this service, it is just a courtesy service to ease out all he hassles faced by the people in withdrawing money at ATMs. Right now we have only Rs 2000 notes to give it to the customers, since the new Rs 500 currency notes are yet to be received by the bank. Customers are not happy with this, but they will to bear with it till smaller currency noes come into circulation. “
When asked, how about the security and safety to his life while dealing with such large amount of money (Rs 2 lakh per day) in open public, for which D’Souza replied saying, ” I don’t carry all that amount money at one time- I make few trips to the SBI Head Office bank when we ran out of money. So when I start in the morning I carry only a portion of the Rs 2 lakh set for the day”
A senior Bank officer at SBI said, ” The need of the hour is to ease the rush at ATMs and branch counters as well as for customers convenience. We have already deployed 4 cars in the City to cater to he cash need of the people. Each POS is expected to serve up to 1000 withdrawals a day on an average. Most of the people were happy to withdraw money in a short duration through these car dispensing cars as they need not had to wait in longer queues at conventional ATMs. Normalcy will be restored once the RBI pumps in new currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations. There is no need to panic.”
” ATMs are running out of cash because we are placing only Rs 100 notes. ATMs are yet to be configurated to dispense Rs 2,000 notes and engineers are working on it. We are expecting new Rs 500 notes. They will configure the ATMs within the next few days to dispense new notes of both the denominations. We had a discussion with RBI officials and we were told that by Tuesday or Wednesday, when sufficient cash arrives, the rush at banks and ATMs would come down considerably. We also urge customers to visit bank branches to withdraw money, when ATMs are running out of cash. We have separate counters for depositing cash, withdrawing cash and exchanging notes.” added the bank officer.
