Banking at your doorstep

MONEY & FINANCE

Door-step delivery and cash pick-ups are fast gaining popularity among business clients and high networth individuals. Individual account holders rarely use the service as they prefer to drop in to the closest ATM.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, HSBC and HDFC Bank are very aggressive about private banking.

ABN Amro offers doorstep delivery of cash, cheque books, pay orders, cheque pick-ups, and delivery of demand drafts.

Under the doorstep services, ABN Amro offers cash up to Rs 50,000 (and a minimum of Rs 1,000 per delivery) within two hours of a phone call. The customer needs to hand over a cheque against the amount on delivery. The ExpressCash service is available between 10 am and 7 pm, 365 days a year.

In addition to this, pay orders and demand drafts are delivered free of cost. As part of ABN Amro's ongoing service enhancements, local pay orders and drafts drawn on own branches are now issued free of cost on various accounts and charged nominally in other cases. HDFC Bank permits cash delivery up to Rs 1 lakh to its preferred customers at their doorstep in select cities.

The facility is available in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh (excluding Panchkula and Mohali), Chennai, Delhi (Inclusive of NCR, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Noida), Hyderabad (Inclusive of Secunderabad), Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

Standard Chartered and HSBC Bank too offer similar services. The charges vary between Rs 50 and Rs 75 for cash delivery up to Rs 1 lakh for customers who maintain a minimum average quarterly balance of Rs 10,000. Depositors, who maintain in excess of Rs 10,000, can avail of the facility free of cost.

HSBC Bank offers cash delivery facility to customers having banking relationship of Rs 1 lakh with a minimum balance of Rs 50,000 in savings and term deposits accounts put together. Customers would have to pay Rs 25 per cash delivery. In addition, the bank also offers cheque pick-ups.

Kotak Mahindra has a somewhat unique facility. The bank has tied up with Les Concierge, a concierge company.

Under the tie-up, bank facilitates booking of movie tickets, utility bill payments among others to customers who have a balance of at least Rs 20,000. If the balance is Rs 10,000, the benefits come at a price "" Rs 200 annually. Kotak Mahindra Bank also provides free cash delivery (Rs 5,000 upwards) at your doorstep and cheque pick-ups from your office.

One transaction is free per day. Thereon, the customer has to pay Rs 75 per transaction, whether it is cash delivery or cheque pick-ups.