How I got my SBI Pehli Udaan account at the age of 10 and struggling to get what SBI promised!

A fun-filled journey in creating minor account and troubles faced in applying SBI ATM card.

Hi, I’m Perinban from Pondicherry trying to get a minor account on SBI.

This topic is about the delay of issuing me a debit card.

Why I wanted a Bank account?

Around the year 2020, I had my savings in a handbag and one day my father said “if you keep your savings on a bank account, you will get some interest.” I asked, “what is interest? What it means? Is that something which we will be interested in?” he answered that “Interest means some amount of additional money for keeping our savings in an bank account. For example: 3% interest on Rs.1000 is Rs.2.5 per month which in total is Rs.1002.5/month” and he explained me a couple of examples then I understood what is interest in banking and I wondered what would happen if I keep all my savings on the bank I thought I would get millions and trillions in just one month if I keep my savings on a bank account but obviously that’s impossible 😉

How I came to know that there is a minor account facility in SBI?

After I got interested in keeping my savings in a bank account, I got curious about how to get an account so I asked my father, “Dad what is the account for children called” he replied “it’s called Minor account my kid.” And I asked “which bank provides it dad” he said “….SBI and HDFC will be providing minor accounts… I don’t know, maybe you can figure it out!” so my curious mind searched minor accounts on Google and got 3 banks, those were:

1) SBI

2)HDFC

3)Copper

I said the information of what I found. On seeing my interest, he got excited and in the same week my father went to the bank and he enquired about the required documents to create a minor bank account. After that we have come to know that PAN card is required for applying a bank account so we were waiting for 2 months to get the PAN card and finally we got the PAN card. 1 year later. While waiting for PAN I figured out interesting two minor accounts options in SBI website: Pehli Udaan and Pehla Kadam.

The things required to set up an account:

We had all the things required to create a minor account: PAN card, Aadhar Card and Passport size photo. Pehla Kadam account is for 0 – 9 years old kids while 10 & above can apply for Pehli Udaan. At that time I was 10 years old, so I can apply for a Pehli Udaan but this account requires a uniform signature to get cheque book. Actually I don’t know how to sign and I could not sign uniformly. After 2 months, I had my very own sign and I can sign uniformly. Since I made my very own sign, the next week we went to the SBI bank, Mudaliarpet branch, Pondicherry to apply for account.

How we applied the bank account?

After we went to the bank, “we” I mean “Me and my father”, we applied the account and whenever I sign I feel like I’m a gentle officer who is signing a document and those moments were one of my happiest times 🙂

After many days we did not get any info about my applied account and so we went to the bank. Unfortunately, the guy who reeived our application was transferred to another branch and we submitted the form again, writing the same thing twice as we don’t know what happened to our old form. On May 13, 2022 when I finished taking my bath my Mom and Dad were acting suspicious so I asked “what happened” they said “we have a surprise for you!” and they opened an SMS in which it was written your account has been created and I was like a very happy bomb that is going to blast happily. We immediately went to the bank and got my savings account passbook. Jolly O Gymkhana 🙂

By the way, Minor’s passbook looks same as the major’s passbook:

I was so excited to put some money in the account I asked my Dad how to do that and he gave me a wide, weird, form-like slip it was written pay in slip.

Here’s how a Pay in slip would look like this:

The first time I did some mistakes so we got another slip and I have written it and I gave it to an aunty and said “I need to deposit”. I gave the 1000₹ and the pay in slip to her, she entered something in the computer and she said “I credited the cash pa”. Later I realized that our aunty is not just an aunty but also an Assistant Manager of the bank. I got very excited to add more money to my account. To enable internet banking, a debit card is required and I feel very hard to fill many pay in slips. Using debit card to deposit and withdraw money through ATM machine is easier than pay in slips.

Applying the Debit card for my Pehli Udaan account:

After a couple of weeks, we went to the bank and asked what is required for applying the debit card, as always we had all the things required except one thing which is photo. We took photo of mine and went to the bank and to apply for the debit card. When we gave the form to the man who applies the debit card he asked “do you want VISA or RuPay” I said “I want VISA uncle” and he asked “Why pa? RuPay is made in India” I replied “Uncle VISA is the more popular thank RuPay. VISA card are widely used and RuPay card option will not be there in many online websites uncle”. After that we both talked a lot and another person I think an employee also jumped in our conversation and we discussed a lot of good information. At last, my father asked “Please send this card fast” and the assisstant manager said “I will surely do this for him” and we went home

After 1 month when we went to the bank, to our surprise, the manager got transfered and the person who applied the debit card for us also got transfered to another branch. We asked what happened to our card and they said “it is not applying Sir, it is always failing”. They asked us to submit the form again and we did it.

The worst part, the loop:

This thing repeated 4 times, not approx. values but these are the exact number of time we applied for ATM card. We did the same loop the man who submits the form changes, they will say it has failed and we come again after some weeks. But actually every week atleast once my father will go to the bank for me but he gets almost the same answer.

The good thing in the bad thing:

One day to my surprise, I got some interest on my 1000₹ saving which was 3₹ so in total I have 1003₹. Thats was like a treasure to me, 3₹ gift by someone. I joyfully told my mom I got additonal 3₹ in my account. Every time we come together to the bank for enquiry, I will write a pay in slip and deposit the money I saved.

An Image after depositing my savings:

Continuing the efforts

Since my school gave holiday for flue spread in Pondicherry and I am in home in weekdays, on 17/09/2022 we went again to enquire about the ATM card he said “Sir, I tried to reupload Perinban’s signature and photo to apply but due to some technical issues it is not applying”. So we said this information to the Branch Manager, he said “we will look upon it later”. My father humbly requested to apply the ATM card fast and as he gave me a hope that I will learn many things about banking from this account and moreover we are struggling and running to and fro for 4 months for just applying ATM continously. I kindly request you to raise a ticket to the technical team. The assisstant manager replied politely “I will raise a ticket to our IT team sir”. When asked what is the next step, he said to come on wedneday to follow up.

On 22/9/2022, we went to bank today and asked what happened to our card he replied that he had forgot to raise the service request to the IT team about the problem. We understood he might have other stuff to handle and missed to raise the request. While he resolve the issue, we requested to enable us internet banking facility. I filled the form, gave him and he would process it and we tomorrow. Hope it will be active soon. But honestly I don’t have a hope that they will issue the ATM soon. so we went to the regional office and we don’t know whom to talk to in the regional office so we talked to someone and they insisted us to talk to the chief manager admin. We said our issue to him and he made a call the the person who applies the ATM card and he talked to him and hopefully we trust that the ATM card will be issued soon

At the regional office:

PLEASE HELP us SBI:

Please help us SBI we are putting a lot of efforts into the account and to get the ATM card which is mentioned on your official website for Pehli Udaan account. It took a lot of time for setting up the account itself, I started at the age of 9 (applying PAN etc) and I’m now 11 year old. It’s taking a very long time. I am still not sure when to apply for my cheque book for which I practiced weeks to sign. My kind request to the Branch Manager, the Regional Manager and the CEO to see this post and take action to provide me debit card, internet banking and cheque book soon. Waiting for your support.