[thirdmainroad]

I've been avoiding national insurances like SBI for my vehicles, thinking they'd take a long time for claim settlements and would generally be a hassle to to deal with.

My wife has a Ignis, and it came with SBI motor insurance as she had taken an SBI bank loan. When it was time to renew, I was trying to get her to go with Bajaj Allianz, for I had had good experiences with them in the past (or so I thought) but she stuck to her heels and renewed with SBI, as it was much cheaper. I scoffed and waited for the day I could point out what a ding bat she is for going the SBI way.

So she went and hit a tree once and her bonnet popped and wouldn't shut properly. She also picked up a scratch on the bumper. I told her to drop the car off at the service station and claim insurance. She said she would, but never got around to doing it. I fumed that it would be difficult to claim insurance after a few days, and that legally you have to get the work started / inform the insurer within 24 hours. She shrugged me off. I scoffed and waited for the day I could point out what a ding bat she is.

She then later scratched her door on the same side. I told her to get it done and claim insurance, she said she would and never got around to it.

A few months later, a motorcyclist grazed her, giving her more scratches and dents. Told her again to go get it done, and that it would be increasingly difficult to claim insurance - saying that SBI would deny the claims for not intimating them on time. She said she would, and finally after a few weeks, she actually went and dropped the vehicle off for insurance.

She came back all proud of herself saying she had filled in the claim form to get all of the work - the bonnet, the bumper, the front, rear doors and rear bumper done in one shot claiming all had happened at once. I scoffed and said that would be impossible, and she, in all probability would get nothing paid for by the insurance and I let her know that she was a ding bat.

Sure enough, after a few days, no approval had come through and the service station asked her to speak to the surveyor. She asked me to speak to him, and me wanting to show her how much of a ding bat she was, agreed to do so happily. The surveyor, when I called, said "You know as well as I do that all of this did not happen in one accident, and some of the scratches are quite old, so I can't approve the claim and have forwarded to the head office." I hung up, told my wife what a ding bat she was and that she wouldn't get approval and told her to either pay for the car and get it done, or get it back. She said she'd wait a day or two and see what the head office would say. I told her thats she's wasting her time and that she's a ding bat.

The next day, she got a call from SBI and the lady told her that there was no way that all of this damage would come from one accident, and that the bonnet one seemed to be very old. She was on speaker, and I went all smug, ready to tell my wife what a ding bat she was.

AND THEN, the lady from SBI continued to tell my wife that since the previous years policy was also with SBI, what they would do is to treat her claim as three different claims, and they would approve them all, but my wife would have to pay Rs 1000 (the mandatory self payment for No depreciation insurance) X 3, and therefore Rs 3000, and politely asked if that was ok. I was SHOCKED! Now who is bigger the ding bat, asked my wife. Not to be outdone, I quickly thought of something and asked my wife to ask the SBI lady what would happen for future cashless and 0 dep claims as there would be only 2 cashless and 0 dep claims per year like all private insurance companies? And the SBI lady says - "Oh no, nothing like that, cashless 0 dep claims are unlimited!"

Is that good service or what??

I suppose I have been a very, very big ding bat for not going the SBI way, considering all this and how much cheaper they are compared to the likes of Royal Sundaram, Reliance, Bajaj Allianz and the like!!

[HappyWheels]

Wow! This is indeed very customer centric! They get their pay and customer get their work done.

I had my previous car loan with SBI and I had a very good experience in both times, while getting the loan and also when closing the loan (where they went out of the way to reach out their HO to get the system transaction done, instead of saying to wait for it, as I had come to Bangalore just for this purpose).

[GTO]

SBI rocks . My best friend recently closed on a luxury car and picked SBI over the private banks for the car loan. SBI offered him the best rate, most favourable terms and excellent customer service.

[Raghu M]

Guys, it's not just insurance, take regular banking too. I had to invest a high amount from proceeds of a sale of property and wanted to make an FD. I chose Union Bank as the interest rates were pretty good. I knew their conventional banking process would be cumbersome and time taking but you cannot forgo higher interest right. So, went ahead and reached the bank. To my pleasant surprise, they were very prompt, issued forms quickly and even filled up some for me. I visited the branch next day to enquire about cheque deposits and the manager himself took care of all the updates. He got our certificates issued, form 15H filled and personally attested where required. He even told me to look at their other products like housing loans, credit cards etc. I think with the intense competition, they have woken up and are smelling the coffee!

[Dhillon]

Originally Posted by GTO

SBI rocks . My best friend recently closed on a luxury car and picked SBI over the private banks for the car loan. SBI offered him the best rate, most favourable terms and excellent customer service.

I also took my car loan from SBI. Excellent interest rate, nil prepayment charges from day 1, excellent service. I also have a savings account with them from the last 10 years and my experience had been really good compared to ICICI, HDFC & AXIS

[saisree]

Great to hear a nice experience from SBI among the sea of pathetic services we get to hear now a days.
Experiences like these depends on the surveyor and the approvers of the claim and it's the same across all the Insurance providers.

OT - Hope you have found your Home Minister is not a Ding Bat as you assumed, and she will be honored with all the respects she deserves.

[DevilzzzzOwn]

SBI Auto Loans Department is really coming around. I think this has something to do with the mandatory Targets set for each branch since a couple of years ago.

When I got my Amaze last year, I went the SBI route since the branch was relatively near the showroom. My file was processed within a matter of 4 hours and the amount was disbursed to the dealer same day.

Best thing was that I had to go to SBI exactly twice. Once was in the morning, I met the Manager handling my case who had all the documents that I had sent as Soft Copies. I signed the agreement (Including fixed 7% ROI and Foreclosure option after 1 year without any penalties which were both mentioned on the agreement in BOLD with a pen, signed by the Manager, since it was a blank and needed to be manually filled in. Took close to 30 minutes. Most of them were spent by the Manager explaining the various clauses of the terms.

The second visit was post delivery. I visited a fuel bunk and then straight to the Loan office. They clicked some pictures, checked the VIN and Engine Number and made copies of the documentation the dealer had provided, filed them in my file and I was off. This visit took exactly 15 minutes. And they had a secured car park with 2 dedicated guards. So I wasn't worried about my new steed getting unwanted marks within hours of delivery.

Overall, yes, Indian Bureaucracy and Red Tape protocols do change when the right pressure is applied. In case of the Loan Department, it was the need to achieve targets. I was told if a branch does not meet targets, they are observed for 6 months and then the branch is shut down. Not sure how true this is, but it seemed to make sense. If you can't milk a cow, you let go of it.

Drive Safe.

[VishJ]

That was a nice gesture by the insurer. They could have very well denied a part of the claim at least. But they gave a very good service. Hope the service quality remains consistent across the country.

Slightly OT - While SBI is a nationalised bank, SBI General Insurance is a private sector company and not a public sector insurer. There are only 4 PSU General insurance companies in India.
1. The New India Assurance Co Ltd
2. United India Insurance Co Ltd
3. National Insurance Co Ltd
4. Oriental Insurance Co Ltd

[msonwheels]

Hello everyone, I am Mukesh and I am really thankful to each and everyone for their kind words on behalf of SBI. Being an SBIan and a BM in a Auto Loan Hub Branch and above all being a true BHPian, I know this is the best platform to get recognised and praise from Team BHP members is something we at SBI can be proud of. Thanks to all of you.

Originally Posted by VishJ

That was a nice gesture by the insurer. They could have very well denied a part of the claim at least. But they gave a very good service. Hope the service quality remains consistent across the country.

Slightly OT - While SBI is a nationalised bank, SBI General Insurance is a private sector company and not a public sector insurer. There are only 4 PSU General insurance companies in India.
1. The New India Assurance Co Ltd
2. United India Insurance Co Ltd
3. National Insurance Co Ltd
4. Oriental Insurance Co Ltd

Yes you are right. SBI General is a subsidiary company of SBI.

[century]

Hi,

Belonging to a non-metro city (Bareilly) in U.P. just like Mr. Manish (msonwheels) and being a SBI customer (myself and family) for more than 40 years, I will say SBI experience is hit or miss. We (my family including me) have faced many awful incidents. Some incidents were of ombudsman level but managed by DGMs. Many a times we (especially me) wanted to leave SBI. Though my older generation feels a bond as their first loan for business use was given by SBI when no-one was betting on them to be successful.

As we are a business customer too having multiple cash/credit accounts, we have faced humiliation more than a few times. When I hear my father saying he has not defaulted in any of his loans even for a single time I see pride in my father's eyes and I take it very harsh when a newly transferred egoist banking executive who thinks everyone who has taken a loan is a beggar and a thief. But for every egoist, loathing manager or executive, we found many good natured, problem solver, customer centric people in SBI. I want to say to Mr. Manish (msonwheels), kindly be the latter because due to you we as customers feel to continue banking with SBI.

[thirdmainroad]

Originally Posted by century

Hi,

Belonging to a non-metro city (Bareilly) in U.P. just like Mr. Manish (msonwheels) and being a SBI customer (myself and family) for more than 40 years, I will say SBI experience is hit or miss..

While I agree with you that SBI banks can be very difficult to work with especially in non metro areas - or for that matter in metro areas as well, SBI general seems to be devoid of all of those issues.

I’ve claimed insurance and road side assistance in a small town, and everything went smooth as butter, and better than what I have experienced with other insurers.

I am really a big fan now of SBI motor vehicle insurance because they have time and again proved to be very good and hassle free.

[aargee]

I've had a pleasant experience of closing a car loan on my SCross in 39/84 months. It wouldn't have been possible with any other bank. What impressed me were
1. Without asking, they offered 0.25% rebate on interest stating my CIBIL score was good
2. The interest rate levied was daily; so if I pay even Rs 1000 a month, the interest rate would be levied principle outstanding - Rs 1000 from the next day onwards & they had amazing transparency to reflect this on the very next day. I don't see such transparency even with any other nationalized bank
3. When I went for closure, they had all the required papers ready including hypothecation cancellation

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by msonwheels

Being an SBIan and a BM in a Auto Loan Hub Branch

Originally Posted by DevilzzzzOwn

My file was processed within a Most of them were spent by the Manager explaining the various clauses of the terms.

Does SBI indulge in exploitative practices like holding the spare key and also asking for blank undated signed cheques as guarantee ?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by thirdmainroad

Is that good service or what??

I suppose I have been a very, very big ding bat for not going the SBI way, considering all this and how much cheaper they are compared to the likes of Royal Sundaram, Reliance, Bajaj Allianz and the like!!

The agent who helps me to get the insurance renewed for my vehicles and for my Dad’s vehicle and indeed for some of my friends too, absolutely swears by SBI. In consequence all our vehicles policies are from SBI and this has been so for the last 2 years.
The agent himself is a very helpful person - always answers queries, calls back if he misses your call and generally provides genuine customer care.
One of my vehicles has its insurance renewal coming up early next month. It is already on SBI and I will get him to renew it also with SBI only.