Hi all..just saw that some people wanted to know about ICICI and I have been a member since last year and I thought that ill share some points starting right from the opening of the account.
Opening the account : I started the account last year and the rep at the bank was pretty helpful in filling up the form and collecting all the details. He said that the account would be active in 4 days and that also did happen in the right time.
He gave the welcome pack which contains the cheque book, debit card and other stuff and I was good to go.
The issues which did crop up was the fact that the ratio of ATMS to customer is too less. meaning there would be huge serpentine queues at all the atms. And most of them have only 1 machine to take the load. So unless you plan the trip to the ATM at ungodly hours you have to be ready to spend a long time to get your money out.
So to get over that issue I also have an SBI account where I keep some emergency cash to use in emergency.I have much to say about starting an account in SBI but then ill leave that for later. It was hilarious !!
One another thing which I found (weird at first) was the service lacks a human touch. The other day I ran out of cheque leafs and went to the bank to get a spare one. The person there said that I can go to the atm adjoining the bank to give a request for a new book as they do not give spare leafs (i later found that they do issue such things on a small charge- I guess that female was pretty possessive about them leafs)
Then I said that I had waited for about 20 mts to meet this person, so could she take my request. She said ’’no’’ and that I could use the phone to place a request. She also said that the phone was not working. If you wanted a new cheque book you have to punch in a request at the ATM.
Where as in other banks you are met by a person who would take you signature and request and issue a new cheque book in an hours time. But these all these new age banks encourage you to do things over the phone or at the ATM. But I have to be fair to the bank and say that I got my new cheque book in three days time after I gave the request over the phone. So at present I dont have any complaints about that. Only with the fact that the person at the counter was not pretty helpful even though her board said ’’how can I help you?’’
Net Banking : Really a boon as most of the businessess have an account in ICICI and you can transfer the cash instantaniously over the net. Also there are many other services offered like paying your bills and recharging your phone card. But I cant give any info on those as I have not tried it out.
But I have done cash transfer umpteen number of times and am extremely satisfied with their netbanking.Pretty safe thing too.
One word of caution is to be careful about your pin and login id. If you lose it then you have to lodge a complaint(again over the phone) and they will send it over to your house. Nope you cannot go to the bank and ask them to generate a new one. Helloooooooo were you listening? they like your voice and not your face !!!
So my verdict is: If you like punching in numbers over the phone for about 15 mts to speak to a person (who puts you on hold anyways) and if you have a net connection then ICICI is the bank for you. For people who still like going to the bank with a personal touch and to interact with people then stick with the SBI.
To be honest I like the service and I would recommend the bank to all my friends.
Signing out......ambassadorindia