ICICI bank Consumer Reviews - Page 2

BOMBAY -- I issued a check of 740,000 inr for my sister's wedding and there was enough balance in account. But icici failed to honor the check and levied me 448 inr for check return charges. Even after following up matter for over a week, they failed to respond on this issue, for which there was no reason. Their call center located in some poor locality in bangalore responded to me saying there is no reason that check would bounce, since there was enough balance on day concerned. He (one Mr. **, Supervisor at call center) said he would get back to me within 24 hours, but so far there is no response.

On the day of wedding of my sister, I had to frantically arrange money to save my prestige and function. Icici is no trustworthy and the people work there are nothing less than illiterate morons. Even after talking to their head who is located in Dubai, Mr. ** and ** at Bombay, I found no solution. These people are just interested in piling up money and expansion without any service or reasonable approach. All that they need is money, money by any unethical means to pay to their herd of ill-trained staffs who graduated yesterday from low profile colleges around the country who cannot even speak relevant to any technical matter.

The good part of bank is they are well-trained in apologizing even without knowing what customer is asking and air-conditioned branches, rest all sucks. I wonder what if this bank closes overnight and runaway with all your money?

NRI's JUST BEWARE OF ICICI AND KINDLY REFRAIN FROM USING ICICI SERVICES. I would be closing down all my accounts with them to avoid further losses. I would launch movement to create awareness among NRI community to stop damage and misuse of our hard-earned money.

These crooks are also famous for laundering foreign currency to illegal elements. My foreign currency was stalled for 2 weeks in 2005 which was misused in grey market by bank itself. For this lapse, ICICI bank was ready to pay me 215 $ out of way to keep my mouth shut. BEWARE OF THIS FRAUD BANK WITH NO MOTIVE OF SERVING INDUSTRY. they need to change their rhyme -- "hum hai na pocket kaatne ke liye".

USA -- Hi, I saw one review saying that ICICI Bank sucks. My esteemed friend, you are making a gross mistake. Sucks is too mild a word to describe the awful service they provide. I will fill in more details over the next few weeks, but today I will write an abstract.

I applied to open an NRE account with ICICI in August 2005. After enough harassment and waste of my time, these idiots opened the account in Jan 2006. Should they not be entered in the Guinness World records for their excellent quality of service? First off, their application is not very clear on what they want. Plus they lost lot of customer (my postal) mails (probably another Guinness record would go for them on this count). Every document I sent them had to be sent twice.

Thirdly, they cannot understand English. They can simple not decode what the documents contain. Fourthly their emails also reflect their lack of English understanding. They would give some weird statements like Annexure blah blah needed, when you would have already sent them all the relevant details. It is up to the customer to waste her time to find what the bank really wants. Mind you, I make it a point to send all details I have to confirm my identity to the bank.

It is April and still they have not got me the welcome kit and check book, even though my account has apparently been opened in Jan, and I have contacted them several time with my new address. Now even the check I sent with my application has not been encashed, causing me to get no interest on them for almost a year, and losing because the dollar has weakened in the meanwhile.

Finally after many emails, they say the check has been sent to my old address, even though they should be sending it to my new address. They say the check is stale. Now, they also say I have to cough up with maintenance charges, because I have not maintained the minimum balance of 10K RS for this quarter.
(Remember for no fault of mine, had sent the check for 1010$ in August itself. That money it was just blocked, because I could not fathom when they would encash it.)

Such banks deserve to be closed. I just hope RBI takes steps to close them. No doubt they will be behind all scams like the Yes Bank IPO scam. I hope the bank does not close suddenly one day, taking away all customers money. Dear readers, if at all you have to open an NRE account, go to HDFC Bank or even SBI (SBI, although a govt bank, is a much better bank than the useless private ICICI). Citbank probably offers best customer service, even though their exchange rates might not be that good. Rest later.

INDIA -- ICICI NRI Customer Service SUCKS!!! In the first place, the online access to my ICICI NRI account was locked/disabled even though I used the login/password that was provided to me. I tried my best to reach the support on the toll-free number (1-866-ICICI-4U). Every time it takes more than 5 minutes to talk to a representative. And they just say that they will not be able to service on the phone, and ask me to mail to nri@icicibank.com.

I live in US and have been waiting to access my account for more than 10 days. And after 10 days and many email exchanges, I am told that the passwords would be sent via postal mail to my Indian address, and not via email!!! This just doesn't make sense to me, as there is no one to access my account in India, and I cannot ask someone to go open my mail and send me the password!!!

Dealing with ICICI bank is driving me nuts. And I am seriously thinking, why I should do business with ICICI bank? The following policies/features are JUST UNACCEPTABLE to me. I have few bank and financial accounts for many years now, and I never had to spend more than 15 minutes to get any issue resolved.

No FULL-SUPPORT via telephone, especially to activate disabled accounts. Email-based support with 24-48 hour response time. And this is misleading, as 2 days is taken to respond, not resolve issue!!! My issue is not resolved even after 10 days, and each 2 days is taken to just respond with counter questions/answers. The responses from the Customer Service representatives is just ambiguous (I was asked to "answer below 4 questions", when I actually saw 6 questions listed below the statement!!! I had tough time to correctly interpret each sentence.)

There is no way to reach a higher official/manager via phone/email to express my anguish, and get my issue resolved. The website is not user-friendly, and there are many broken links. And sometimes, the error messages are just ridiculous (I got the message: "Unknown error occurred", instead of the something like, "The Social Security Number you entered does not match our records. Contact Customer Service.")

Don't ever sign blank forms of ICICI bank. At every ATM and branch, you have smiling marketing guys approaching you to apply for credit cards, insurance, current accounts, demat accounts and what-not. The project themselves as helpful. They explain to you the product they have, just ask you to sign on the application and they fill up the rest, thus save you precious time and hassles. We feel these guys are living up to the slogan "Hum hain na" and some of us do sign and leave the rest to them.

I have had a nasty experience while opening a current account. After understanding the various current accounts, I told the marketing guy I would like a Rs. 25000/- Quarterly Average Balance account. He said no problem and asked me to sign on the necessary spaces and since he does not want to waste my time, he could fill up the rest.

10 days later I got my account number and immediately I deposited Rs.25,000/- cash. Six months have gone by, I have made sure my balance is never less than Rs.25,000/-. Now in my September bill I get a charge of Rs.771.40 for non-maintenance of QAB (Quarterly Average Balance). When I spoke to the customer care, the charge is because I had not maintained a QAB of Rs.50,000/-. When I told him, I have an Rs.25000/- QAB account he says nope, you have an Rs.50,000/- QAB account.

When I approached the M.G Road, Bangalore branch where I had opened the account. I was directed to the solutions manager, he told me he will get back in 2 days time, which he did not. I again visited the bank and met him, he retrieved my application and told me since you have signed on it, you had accepted the Rs.50,000/- QAB account.

When I got pissed off, he told me there have been instances where the marketing guys have used white ink to tamper applications. And why do they do that? To earn higher commission. The higher the QAB account they sell, the higher commission they get!

He has asked me call in a week's time to let me know if they can reverse the charge. But told me it is doubtful. And also told me, if my application was tampered with white ink, he would definitely support me cent percent. The marketing guy who sold me the account was **. The manager I approached is designated as Area Head, Business Banking Group and his name is **. My advise to you all is, if you want to buy any ICICI bank's product, look at them as con artists and take all precautions. And please, please don't ever sign on blank applications.

MUMBAI -- I am a NRI and have visited Mumbai in Sep 2005 . I tried to open ICICI NRE accounts for myself and my family, totaling three accounts by paying 1000 $ on 19th Sep 2005 (by completing all the process). Money in cash was handed over to ** and ** who were on duty. As per me, those were opened successfully, since I received check books, ATM CARDS and various PINs. These accounts belonged to ICICI Andheri Branch.

After that I left India within few days. When I tried to make some transactions, I found funds missing from all my three accounts. The money I deposited did not appear in bank records. I tried to call Bank Manager Ms. ** and **, but no one was ready to talk or interested to reply. Moreover on my further attempts calling them failed, as they do not pick up phone. There is no one in bank who is ready to answer about the whereabouts of my money (foreign currency) deposited, for which I have some receipts which looks fake.

I believe there is some scam or fraud going on in bank on the name of opening NRE accounts. So called ICICI staff - feel that it is easy to cheat non-residents and easy to make money out of foreign accounts which involves foreign currency. It looks like foreign currency racket/scam. Such foreign currency has huge demand in domestic market as far grey market is concerned.

If everything was right then after 20 days, I wouldn't see zero balance in all the three accounts. It clearly show bank's dishonesty. When I acted strong, these scammers started blaming on defect of my documents meant for opening accounts.This claim came after I started trace/investigation of my funds.

I feel lost as I do not know what to do since no bank staff is responding to whereabouts of my money and sitting 10000 km away, I feel that I have been cheated by ICICI Bank Andheri, Mumbai branch. I feel shame on such banks. BEWARE OF ICICI BANK. NRI's need to be extra careful before opening account with ICICI BANK to protect their hard-earned foreign currency.

PUNE, MAHARASHTRA -- I am **, Holding a saving account of ICICI bank in at Bhandarkar Road Branch, Pune (Maharashtra). Someone unknown person transfer Rs. 41200/- from my account on 05-Nov-2010 at 12.48 PM Through internet banking. Now I would like to tell you how I lost my amount without my knowledge.

Before that I have received a call from a person who introduced me as ICICI bank's customer care executive, his mobile number is ** at around 11.45 PM on 05-Nov-2010. He told me that, we are updating & integrating new system for internet as well as mobile banking and for that we need URN number which they will send SMS soon. He have all the details of my account like account number, branch name, amount bal in account. At that time he send me all these details by SMS and just confirm with me it is right or wrong.

After this discussion I had received SMS from TM-ICICIBNK with URN number at 12.23 PM on 05-Nov-2010. After receiving SMS, again received call from same number as mentioned above at around 12.30 PM to know that URN number. And at 12.48 PM I have got one more SMS that "€œRs. 41200/- (Forty-one Thousand Two Hundred Rupees) drawn from my account"€. My account money, i.e. Rs. 41200/- have transferred to that unknown person's account by himself. Bank address from where the that unknown person drawn the amount & his Transaction ID is **. His name **.

After this entire incident, I went to branch but any of executive didn't entertain us. They given their agent number who handle such cases. With information that I had complained at ICICI Bank Customer Care no., I communicated with ICICI Bank customer Care Executive by telephonic conversation on ICICI Bank Customer Care no. He heard all my information and told that we have to make a complaint in crime branch (Cyber cell). I complained at crime branch with application and bank statement on 08-Nov-2010.

What action will be taken by ICICI bank against the person? Why ICICI not send any notice to that person?? Now please verify the above given information and kindly take an immediate action. I shall be very thankful for that.

BANGALORE -- I opened an NRE account with ICICI Bank Kormangala Branch, Bangalore. I requested for a mandate ATM card for my wife in Jan 2010, which was delivered in time by courier. However, the PIN for the card was never received. So my wife could not use this card, and I had to postpone money transfer to this account from Singapore. On a recent trip to India in 2nd week of March, I contacted the customer service to issue the PIN to her. The reply I got was that her card was deactivated and she had to contact customer service to get it activated. How would she get into phone banking without her ATM PIN?

Anyway, after much run around, someone gave me a number in Hyderabaad, and they advised me to put in a request through net banking for activation of the card. I did so, but received no reply to my e-mail. Only thing written was "status of request not known, send e-mail through mymailbox." I contacted customer service from Singapore through a toll-free number, where I was informed that the card was activated but for issue of PIN, I'll have to contact Hyderabaad. I rang up Hyderabaad on my own cost, where I was repeatedly put on hold for a very long time with the plea that their system was running very slow.

After much wait, I was informed that they could not generate the PIN as it was only an ATM card. They also could not take a request for PIN from me and my wife will have to contact them. The PIN will be sent to my wife's communication address. I informed that my wife is working and anything sent by courier was likely to be missed (as apparently happened with the PIN mailer first time), so could they please instruct the courier to contact her on her cell phone before coming. I was informed that this could not be ensured.

So, I cannot be informed about the PIN for my own account, delivery of PIN to my wife cannot be ensured, and in effect, the very purpose of opening an NRE account is defeated. Disgustedly, I sent in a request to close the account, and decided to use another bank. My advice to other NRIs considering using ICICI bank for opening NRI accounts is: be aware. It is the worst service and corporation that I have ever encountered.

Hi all, I don't know if this is correct place, however I would still post my issue since 'ICICI' plays a role. I applied for a Car (Chevrolet) Loan via ICICI. The loan amount was a mere 3.2L. I submitted over 100 Xerox copies of documents, my past 2.5 years of employment papers, this and that.

Where am I stuck? The person from ICICI (or the agency ICICI hires) went to the WRONG address for my verification. Now, I'm single and I stay alone. Where I live, it has been over 2.5 years and everyone knows me in the building for obvious reasons.

The verification guy went to the wrong address and marked my FI as negative. I re-requested it and this time he entered the wrong address again! I assisted him in going to the correct address, and again he marked me as negative! I verified from every neighbor in my building, all of them were away to work. And the comments that this guy put in his notes every time was "The guy has left the building 2 days ago". Now, when first time he entered the wrong place, how could he write "I left 2 days ago"? (Even if I did leave) How come he wrote the same damn comment AGAIN when he entered the same address?

My question to ICICI persons: Are these persons your own? These so called uneducated and absolutely lunatic people. If not, then they are from some agency that you hire. What is your criteria for making a contract with an agency for the verification process? Or do you have none at all? On what basis are these persons given information for verification? Or is this just some "layman's work" or some "jugaad" thing, keeping which in mind does ICICI hire/employ agency/persons for the verification process?

I have taken a leave today, in spite of urgent work, sitting back home like a stupid person, and finding EVERY SITE on which I can tell people what ICICI does! No matter what comes to this country, the service is as bad as a road-side dhaba. And its painful to see, ICICI BANK is no damn different!

Thanks ICICI, these are the reasons why people from outside laugh at India and its services. Forget them, I am laughing myself to be a part of the country where a bank like ICICI truly harasses people and kills their time and money for nothing at all! ICICI...YOU SUCK!

Sometime in the year 2006 my wife and I (both NRIs for the last 8 years) decided to invest some of our hard-earned money into the booming housing market in India . We purchased a house in Gurgaon with the help of a home loan from ICICI Bank. Following were the experiences (quite the opposite of dreaming of buying a place in India!) in dealing with ICICI Bank over a period of two and a half years.

Opening an account: Compared to a day in the US, it took me a whopping four months to open up an NRE account! (They told me the signatures do not match the passport. Well I have never changed my signature. Another time they required additional documents and list goes on and on)

Customer service: The customer service is simply awful. Most of the times the home loan folks at 1866ICICI4U just don't know enough about the case. But they are always courteous enough to ask for all the loan and personal information only to inform you, "Sorry sir. Please contact your relationship manager." Or, "Sorry Sir we won't be able to help you on this." Of course, there is never a manager available to escalate the issue.

Selling the house: Unlike an escrow period in the US, the home loan has to be fully paid before releasing any papers. Well good luck if you intend to sell the house and have the proceeds from the buyer to pay off the loan. There is no such thing in India. BTW what good is a relationship manager when all they can give you are canned responses: "Sorry Sir. This is our policy... Sorry Sir. Sorry Sir."

Website: Logging into the site is probably the easiest thing to do. However, trying to find information related to your accounts is anyone's guess. Most of the times, clicking on home loan account returns a "Our system is down. We are currently experiencing difficulties. Sorry for the inconvenience."

Conclusion: Invest in a country where you live. And if you do plan on investing in India, DO NOT BORROW FROM ICICI BANK. While Ms. ** and Mr. ** are busy giving big presentations about the opening up of Indian Financial Markets, poor borrowers are suffering tremendously. And BTW when they say SORRY, they really don't mean it. What a shame!!!

MUMBAI -- Dear All, this is bring in to Notice the kind of harassment done by ICICI Bank's agents to customers. I have taken credit card from ICICI bank in year 2005 with card number **. In year 31-May-06, in one of statement I found that ICICI Lombard policy has been charged against my credit card. I had not done any purchase and expect Lombard charges - nothing was showing on my statement.

Immediately I called up call center and asked them to cancel the fee and cancel my card. I have been advised by the call center agent to tear the card and put card in the drop box, which I did next day itself. Even post that I received the statement next month with minimum amount taken from my account and interest put on rest of the amount. I again followed up with customer care personnel and then they said they will ensure that no statement is further delivered and they will revert back fees. Immediately canceled my account also with ICICI Bank.

Then suddenly next month, collection agent came to my house for collecting dues and I was shocked. Again I debate with him then he said pay the amount 200 and everything will be settled down. I did same and I got receipt for same.

Suddenly 3 days, back again. One agent came to my house for collection and started misbehaving with my wife. When I showed up slip, he said, "you pay rest of money" else he will send some '€œguddas'€ to collect. He said he will ensure that collection is taken from him outside in road if I don'€™t pay upfront. He started abusing. I am really afraid and now I have asked my relatives to help me out. This type of '€œgundagardi'€ ICICI bank'€™s collection agents are doing with customers. Would appreciate if any one can help me out. I have receipt and bills with me.