Do you want to know about modern-age thugs, cheats and theives. Read on..
The latest on the bloc are Housing Finance Corporations (HFCs), Insurance Companies and Credit Unions.. Sometimes, it feels like capitalization of Indian economies is providing more opportunities for these multinational thugs to cheat our simple and poor janta..
ICICI Bank is the second largest bank in India and has over the years grown through effective networking, excellent customer support and outstanding service to the community. I have had almost all my accounts with this bank since 1999, viz, homeloan, Demat, Credit-Cards, Savings Bank Account as well as Prudential Insurance Policy.. But since the last couple of years, the bank appears to have put all its fair Practices out of the door..
Consider the following examples..
1> I wanted to open another Unit-linked insurance policy with Icici-Prudential.. The initial process went very smooth.. and they said that I will get all the policy papers within a week.. I happily went on with my life.. Until after 3 months later I wanted to check all my policies for income tax purposes.. I was shocked at not receiving the policy papers.
When I called the company, it said that I have to undergo a medical test as part of their procedures, they didn’t have any answer when I asked that why I was not informed about it while filing the papers.. Nevertheless, I appeared for the medical test and informed about the same to the company.
Again they mentioned the same thing.. You’ll get the papers within a week.. This time I promptly followed up after a week only to hear that they haven’t received the medical report yet.. After yet another week, I get to know that the medical report has been lost by the bank and they are going to charge me extra 0.50 Rs per unit of the policy because of some of their internal policies.
I asked them to show me the documentation on the same. But to no avail.. They said that they cannot show me their internal documentation. This is a serious infringement to ones right to information??
2> I recently moved from chennai to bangalore, and had my Housing Loan account linked to my Savings Bank account for direct debit of the EMI’s. When I wanted to move my bank account from bangalore to chennai. I asked the bank as well as the HFC about linking the new savings bank account for Direct Debit and if there are any charges for the same.
The call-centre folks for both the Banking Account as well as the HFC informed me that I don’t have to pay anything for moving my account but I only have to intimate the HFC about a change in bank account. I obtained the necessary mandate forms got the signature verification from my new bank and went to submit the form.
To my horror, the HFC agent tells me that I have to pay an amount of Rs 500 Service Charge plus the taxes for changing my bank account. I don’t understand that I am moving from an ICICI Bank Account to another ICICI Bank Account, why should I pay the charges?? Also, earlier I had paid 10 cheques for amount equal to the EMI value. Now they are asking me 3 cheques for the total outstanding balance to be paid to the HFCs. To give you the figures, lets say if you have an outstanding loan of Rs 9Lacs, you have to give 3 Post Dated Cheques of Rs 3Lacs each to the bank.
Now, its a given fact that nobody would keep that kind of money in the bank and I am a bit hesitant to give a post dated cheque for an amount that I am unlikely to have in my account. Incase if you get late for even a single payment, the bank reserves the right to charge you for cheque bouncing of that much amount.. In the worst case, they may auction your property and give you the amount that you had invested in the first place..
I am going to check out other options, I would appreciate if you can recommend some better banks to me for refinancing my housing loan.. I think, I’ve had enough of ICICI Bank now.
Back to Nationalised banks. The service is slow, and the queues are long.. But atleast those banks are trust worthy and don’t Ripp you off for your money..
Regards,
Manish.