Recently, ''Business Standard'' has ranked Bank Of Punjab (read as BOP now onwards) as the No. 1 bank in terms of efficiency and No. 9 for overall performance.
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BOP is a private bank who saw her dawn after the banking sector was opened for private players in 1994. At present, its having having 92 branches all over India having its major existence in North India providing various services such as Savings and Current Account, Demat Account, ATM card, ebanking, etc.
Usually, it is been said that private sector banks are thorough professional and are always on their toes to provide best services to customer. But, mine first hand experience is of contrary kind in context to the general opinion. I have an account with this bank since November, '01. It took almost 10 days for them to process the account and another 60 days for them to mail me my ATM card. Minimum Balance required to be maintain to operate a Savings Account is Rs. 1,000/-. If you fail to maintain the minimum balance they charge you Rs. 50/- per month. Cheque charges are Re. 1/- per cheque issued. For all the cheques, I deposited with this bank the credit of it I got it in the account 3rd or 4th day from the date of deposit (nowadays even nationalised bank gives credit of the cheque deposited the next day from the date of deposit). I and a friend of mine (he too holds an account with this bank) wanted to purchase a vehicle on hire purchase and so we demanded 48 cheques from the bank but they informed us that they can't issue more then 25 cheques at a single point of time, when asked that why is it so the manager informed us that he doesn't have the authority to issue more then 25 cheques. We were stunned ( I was deadly in need of 'Hajmola' - digestion pills). Further, I had applied for a loan even after submitting all the relevant documents my application was rejected. When asked to furnish an explanation for rejection, he started doing blaah..blaaah...blaah, no logical explanation, while in the brochures published by them they claim that we would sanction your loan in 7 days from the date of receipt of application. Every 45-50 days their ATM takes sick leave for 3-4 days, this is for the third time it being on sick leave form the date, I became an account holder. The demand draft charges are Rs. 40/- for a draft upto Rs. 1,000/- which is common with all other private banks. I don't mind paying high charges but in lieu of that I expect best service. I haven't yet used any of its other services because I am highly satisfied by the kind of services provided by them.
BOP hasn't yet came out with its IPO.
I am about to close the account and wouldn't bank with them in future. This bank really sucks.
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