I opened an a/c with Federal Bank after opening a/cs with SBI, HDFC, etc. I always thought that Federal Bank might not to upto standard since it is not a widely know bank and has a major presence mostly in kerala and so I thought it would be very obsolete in its operations and dealings and office dealings.
But to my utter surprise, it has turned out to be the best bank I have account with.
They gave netbanking immediately on a/c opening. I pay LIC/tele bill thru it. I have done multiple transactions to my friends and got from them.
I open FD account online and can go to branch to close without any hassles.
Once I went to close my FD account just at the time of cash close. They had closed counting but not the ledger. So they gave me a payout and rectified the count. Guess I way lucky that ledger was not closed.
Response via email is also adequate.
I got gold loan without any hassles.
Good bank to bank with.
Recent bad experience (Aug 2009)
Recently, I had my first bad experience with Federal Bank. They charged Rs 30 from my account. On inquiring, they said, they had deficit in their account balance and hence they got orders from the top to take from Gold Loan customers!!!. I had closed my gold loan more than a year back, paying all applicable interests at prevalent ROI. When I said, what you did is illegal, he had the nerve to say, ’’Madam, it is only Rs 30, please adjust.’’ I couldn’t believe my ears. That clearly shows that what they did is not exactly correct otherwise he would have said this way.
I plan to pursue the matter further and to refer to banking ombudsman too. If people have had similar experience, pl. put your experience here too. Maybe we can go for a common legal representation. Re 1 or Rs huge amount, they cannot debit our account for no reason, without intimation.
They recently started NEFT transaction, till 1 lakh outward free.