SBI to reward customers for repaying loan on time

Timely repayment of loans is expected of borrowers. But if you are a State Bank of India (SBI) customer, you can soon earn reward points for paying your loan instalment on time. You can also earn reward points for opening an account or transferring funds through internet or mobile banking.

To celebrate its 60th Anniversary, the country's largest bank launched State Bank Rewardz, an enterprise-wise loyalty programme through which customers can earn reward points for various types of banking transactions.

Customers will be enrolled automatically into this programme once they use at least one of the services that offer points. These include debit cards, personal banking, alternate channels such as internet and mobile banking, home loans, rural banking, small and medium enterprises (SME), and demat accounts.

The points earned can be redeemed by downloading the State Bank Rewardz mobile app. For now, the app is available in Google Play for Android phones. Downloading the app itself will earn 100 points. For every Rs 200 spent on SBI debit card, you can earn 1 point. Registering for internet banking and carrying out the first transaction of minimum Rs 75 within a month will earn 125 points. It is 200 points in case of registering for mobile banking.

Opening a savings bank account online with Rs 1,000 minimum balance can fetch you 100 points.

If you don't request for cheque books in a year, you can earn 20 points and updating contact details once a year can fetch 20 points.

Timely repayment of home, auto, education and personal loans will also earn points. You can earn two points for every Rs 1,000 repaid (on auto, education and personal loans) to 30 points for home loan repayment.

“We wanted to show our gratitude to customers who pay up on time and this was one way of saying thank you,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI.

Rural customers can get rewards points for timely servicing of their Kisan Credit Card accounts and agri-term loans. SME customers can earn between 120 and 3,000 points for maintaining the average quarterly balance in current account at between Rs 10,000 and Rs 5 lakh.

Reward points can be redeemed at about 6,000 merchant outlets for recharging mobile or DTH services, booking movie tickets, bus, flight tickets or buying the SBI gift card.

A total of four points translate into Rs 1. In addition to redeeming through the State Bank Rewardz app, customers can also redeem points online or over the phone. The expiry period for points is 36 months.

In most reward points programmes, redeeming is not easy, due to which many customers let their points lapse. That is why SBI introduced the concept of using mobile app for redeeming, said B Sriram, managing director and group executive (national banking).

State Bank of India is moderating the pace of opening brick-and-mortar branches as it steps up thrust on improving access for customers through digital platform and electronics channels. The phase of aggressive branch expansion is over.

After opening 1,053 branches in 2013-14, the pace slowed down in 2014-15. It opened only 464 in FY15. SBI had 16,333 branches at the end of March 2015, according to the 2014-15 annual report. SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said the bank would continue to open branches, including digital branches.