Well, the so called largest private sector Bank in India, ICICI. Is it a bank, or a place where you pay for keeping your money ’safe’? Well, put 10000 rupees here and also some other bank.. After 5 years goto both banks. The ICICI balance would be 5000 now whereas the other bank balance would be Rs.15000. And you wont know what happened to your money.
Well, I started an account in ICICI bank because I had no choice. I was in college hostel and ICICI bank had its counter at Satyabama college, Chennai. So all hostel students created account here. It was a ’Student Account’, where there is no minimum balance. After a year or so, I noticed that some 1500 rupees have been deducted from my account. I couldn’t make out, what happened, suddenly. I doubted if some one took my card and used it.
I made a call to theri call-center. Now, the person says that my account is a SB account and minimum balance is 5000 on quarterly basis. I asked ’So...?’.. So 750 rupees will be deducted from your account, plus 25 rupees for each time you used ATM, 50 rupees for each time of withdrawing money!!! I asked her, ’’why is my account SB now?.. Why did u change without my knowledge?’’ She said ’’I donno. It shows as SB account here. Pls goto your branch to know’’. The Sathyabama college counter belongs to R.H road branch. I had to go there.
I was made to wait for some time. Then I spoke to the one regarding this. She said, ’’Your account is a SB account’’.. I said it was a student account and why did u change to SB account without my knowledge and deducted 1500 rs. You never informed me through any terms & conditions statement about these.. She said, ’I donno its mentioned here as SB account’. Then I asked her, if its a SB account then give me a cheque book. Now she framed a new rule for ICICI Ltd. on the spot!. If account balance is less than 5000 we dont give cheque books!.
Fine, I thought. Now its a SB account, and I dint wanna keep changing banks. So I ignored this issue and continued with the bank with a balance above 5000. Still, I never got the cheque book! BUT, everytime I looked into my account, I found some 100 rs or 200 rs got deducted wihtout my Knowledge. When I called up, they informed me as some charge.
I’ve heard that they charge you if you use a particular ATM card in some other bank’s machine. But here, wherever you use, some kinda charges are put on you. I was just unable to keep track of the various charges they levied (like Debit card charge, etc etc). To get a DD, its Rs.100 here! So finally I decided, to close this account. Because it seemed like its more like paying someone to ’look after’ your money. As a commission for ’looking after’ your money, they eat a bit of it too.
And, when I closed my account, I was asked to leave Rs.100 in my account as ’CLOSING FEE’. No wonder, if they call me after a few days and ask me to pay 100 rs or 200 rs for being an ex-account holder of the bank!
Now, Im looking for a bank. And friends, if you can help me find one. I want the following features:
Internet Banking & e-pay
Debit Card / Decent ATM coverage
Shouldn’t eat my money with wierd charges.
Minimum balance of Rs.5000 or less.
Post your opinion on comments section.