I’ve had an account with HDFC Bank for around 5 years now.
When I had only a salary bank account, everything was hunky dory.
It was when I went in for other products like Demat account, Trading account, that I faced issues.
I created the DEMAT account only to discover that HDFC does not provide an online interface to your Demat account by default. You have to fill in a separate form for that. Having done that, I was expecting that I’d be able to check my Depository balance. But inspite of having filled in the form requesting to link my bank account to Demat account, it took me around 1.5 months to get it done after 3-4 two hour visits to the bank and the Demat Department.
An irritating thing is this form is a paper form. HDFC does not have a way to request this linkage online. They simply make you to visit them in Baba Adam ka Zamana.
Getting a change of address on my account done is a pain - more visits to the branch, more hours, more handholding without sureity of it getting done.
Recently, they’ve been asking me for the copy of the PAN card. I must have given them the copy of PAN card at least thrice in person and 3-4 times via someone else. Still, I keep getting calls from the Securities office asking for the PAN card. I am led to believe they’re not interested in technology upgrades and want their customers to bail out their incapability.
My brother has a demat account that is still not linked to his bank account inspite of at least 2 requests to do so.
HDFC Home loans are typically at least 0.25%-0.5% expensive than their competition. In earlier days, service from competition was not as good. Now, they’ve caught up with HDFC and offer lower rates.
HDFC securities does not offer comprehensive information in their newsletter for trading like vendors like Kotak, Sharekhan & Motilal Oswal.
As a friend has correctly pointed out, HDFC is good only at banking: they’ve got a good ATM network - though severly constrained by older technology limitations. For people who travel a lot, having most services online is not a luxury but a necessity - and HDFC certainly does not make my life easy in that respect. I have to do a lot of handholding for them to get information about my money, shares etc.