Don't bank on us

I'd have discovered this about a year ago, if I hadn't been putting off. We all acquire mutilated or soiled notes once in a while. I have a habit of stuffing them in a side compartment of my bag, and letting them accumulate. I always tell myself that I must change them the next time I am at the bank. But each time I either forget or the bank is too crowded, or I'm running late for something else. So they have been accumulating.

Yesterday I was at the bank, the counters weren't too crowded, and I remembered. So I asked to exchange my bad notes.

Before I go into a foaming at the mouth ranting mode, I want to tell you I have nothing against State Bank of India, my branch; they are good sorts, mostly.

But.

The man who took my notes first spread them out and arranged them according to denomination. This took a while. ( I did say they had been accumulating) Then he leaned forward. "Ah, here is what you must do, " he started.

Open-mouthed, I listened to him expound on how I was to take a white paper (he described the exact dimensions of it) , and how I was to glue it on the vertical tear in the middle of the note, let dry, and bring it back to him. He then went on to the next note. This one had multiple earlier staple punctures run together to form a sieve- like pattern at one edge. Again the procedure was explained.

After the third note, which had a half-inch tear, I stopped him. Are you saying that I have to get scissors and paper and glue, and do a school home-work sort of cut and paste project before these notes can be exchanged, I asked incredulously.

Yes.

I pointed to the notice saying that this branch accepted and exchanged mutilated and soiled notes, by order of the Reserve Bank of India. I said there was nothing about amateur bank note repairs to be carried out by the general public in it. As long as the serial numbers are clear, they had to be exchanged without question, I said.

After the necessary procedure has been followed, he said. Those are our guidelines, he said. I won't be able to exchange these notes without all that cutting and pasting, then? I said. Not in this branch, he said.

Oh, he kindly exchanged three tenners which were merely soiled.

I came home and did some research. The Reserve Bank of India has a website, after all. Their policy for exchanging mutilated and soiled currency doesn't say anything about this supposedly required doctoring of the bank notes. Nor did I find anything about it here, or here or at the State Bank of India website where they listed their services.

As I said once before, I am not a confrontational sort of person. But the idea that a bank won't exchange torn notes until the customers have done a repair job on them is an outrage.

I have written a mail to the regional director of the Reserve Bank of India, and sent a copy to the Grievance Redressal Cell.

I am not going to sit down and cut out small bits of white paper and paste them on bank notes. For all I know, the gent at the counter will then tell me it's the wrong sort of paper and won't do. Damaged they might be, but they are legal tender and a bank ought to accept them as they are and send them on to the Reserve Bank of India, not harass unsuspecting general public like this.

I will keep you informed what happens next, folks.

Cheers!