I had opened an account in ICICI bank as a salary account in Pune. That was in August 2002. As long as I was in Pune and using only ATM card to withdraw money I did not face any issues.
But the problems started cropping up only when I moved to Bangalore. To mention a few problems:
Change of address is a very frustrating job and is done most ineffectively. They may even jumble up old and new addresses together while sending letters. Sometimes they may change your Permanent address with address from Passport and ask you to send written request to get it reverted.
There is always a long long queue at ICICI atms.
Very difficult to get Infinity (online banking) password at one go. Sometimes they will send at old address, sometimes at permanent address.
Website is very unstable and unsecured. I am facing this problem since morning today.
Call center representatives do not listen to your problem properly and will keep on repeating the same thing no matter what you say.
Telephonic transactions are a pain. You may land up at the same menu time and again.
Do not accept responsibility for failed or incomplete transactions. It’s left to you to track everything.
One great advantage that I used to enjoy with ICICI was PowerVantage. By way of my account being a salaried zero balance account any amount in excess of 10000 would be moved to fixed deposit accounts. The interest earned on this amount would usually be good. Unfortunately linking my demat account with savings account is denying me that advantage now.
Thus, all in all ICICI Bank is a no-no bank especially if you are in big cities where banks offering much better services are available.
Updated: July 1st 2005
I had made card-to-card funds transfer to my Federal Bank Account. It’s been 10 days and the amount has not been credited. ICICI bank is not able to give any information regarding which branch of Fed Bank they have transferred the amount to. They are only going round and round as my Rs 14000 hangs precariously in the air.