Allahabad GPO to issue ATM card within 25 mins!

ALLAHABAD: Now, you can get an ATM card of India Post within 25 minutes of applying for it! The scheme, started under Insta Card facility, comes with no additional charge. Earlier, the card was issued in two days.

“The decision to expedite the card issuance process was taken recently after seeing response from our account holders. More than 2000 account holders applied for this facility within five months (April 15 to August 15), which was very encouraging for us,” said senior post master, Allahabad GPO RN Yadav.

At present the facility is being provided in five branches of GPO— Teliyarganj, Bamrauli, Rajroopur, Kutchery and head post office. The service would be extended to other branches later, said Yadav.

To avail the facility, an applicant needs to have an account at GPO or its branches. He/she will have to fill up an application form, which they can get from special counters at GPOs and its select branches. Once the form is submitted, the ATM card would be issued within 10 minutes while its four digit pin number will be given in the next 15 minutes. The card will be activated within 48 hours.

As per Yadav, the postal department is presently providing two types of services—‘Insta Card’ and ‘Personalised Card’ facilities to its customers since the installation of ATMs at post offices in 2015. “The main reason behind people applying for Insta Card facility is increasing awareness. As compared to ‘Personalised card’ facility that takes several days, Insta Card is much quicker,” said Yadav.

Notably, besides postal department’s ATMs, the card can be used in the ATMs of any bank to withdraw money and that too without paying additional charges for transactions. “The GPO is also planning to instal more ATM machines at its branches. This will be in addition to four ATM machines, which have been installed at Kutchery post office, Handia post office, Manjhanpur post office and GPO for the facility of customers,” said Yadav.