I have had an account with a atleast half a dozen banks. Many of them I have terminated. The three banks in which, I hold accounts currently are Canara bank, Syndicate bank and ICICI banks. Of the three I have to admit that the one that provides me the least service is Canara bank. But I have to stick with it for some time to come as my salary gets credited through it. Its not a bad bank as such but then its still harping on its traditional methods which has now been thrown out of most banks. Atleast in the branch from where my account operates there is nothing called a computer. Can you imagine a bank without a computer in this day and age...and Iam not talking of a rural branch with just a dozen accounts. Its extremely painful to stand at counters watching the poor staff lifting, shifting and opening huge and heavy ledger books searching for the account details and entries of each and every customer. Its time consuming as well.
To compare the services offered by the best of the three banks that I use, which is ICICI with that of Canara bank would be like comparing Cheese and Chalk. In my city, that is Mangalore which is Iam sure counts amongst the Top 5 cities in Karnataka( which again must be among the top 5 states in India) Canara bank operates not one ATM, at least not one that I know of. The bank also is supposed to have its origins in this coastal district, whose head quarters is of course Mangalore. If the bank has such pre-historic facilities here, I cant imagine the scene in any other part of the country.
I still have to wait 20 minutes, most days to withdraw cash from my account something which takes not more than 2-3 minutes at my ICICI ATM. the time taken is more in case you have to make a draft while banks like ICICI offer facilities like Dial a Draft. The bank works strictly from 10 to 2 and from 10 to 12 on Saturdays (Sunday holiday)which makes it extremely difficult to carry out banking operations for people who are working.An ATM would certainly help people like me who cannot operate the account during banking hours.
Its high time that a bank that calls itself a pioneer in banking services, wake up and realise that a other banks have gone very far ahead. Much lesser known banks in Mangalore have ATMs and computerised customer assistance. One word of appreciation though is the fact that most of the staff at Canara bank are quite helpful to me but so are the staffs at the other two banks.