Are you an NRI and confused which bank is better to open an NRE/NRO Bank Account in India? Keep reading if you answered yes. A few months ago, I had the same confusion and doubt in my mind. I researched the opportunities these banks provided me.
I was in India last December and thought it would be really nice to open an account while I am here. I had downloaded and filled HDFC Bank’s account opening form, but forgot to take it with me to India (which wasn’t a big deal.) I was confused if I should go with HDFC bank or ICICI bank. My family and friends in India suggested that I should go with ICICI instead of HDFC. I went to ICICI’s Faridabad branch with a relative who had an account there. There is no need for a reference to open an NRE/NRO account with ICICI, but my relative knew the bank employees. The employee photocopied my documents (Passport, etc.) I was impressed that they do such things in India, but I don’t know if it was due to the presence of my relative or they treat every customer like that. I was also surprised to see a lot of banners saying “Free Gift” to NRIs, who open an account with ICICI. It was surprising because, it wasn’t a NRI specific branch, it was just another random ICICI branch (I haven’t seen them all though.)
The bank employee gave me a packet, which had a check (cheque, whatever you prefer) book, ATM card, Internet banking password and PIN. We asked for the “Free Gift” and the employee said they were “Out of Stock” and they would deliver it later to my relative as I was about to leave for US the next day. They did give the gift to my relative. After a couple of days when I came back to USA, I logged onto ICICI’s website and entered my login details, to find out that my User Id is disabled. Through my relative I found out that it will take some time, as the bank sends all the documents to Mumbai head office and it takes some time. I waited patiently for few days and then contacted the ICICI again through nri@icicibank.com. The NRI cell told me that they are not aware of the account status and I should contact the ICICI branch. The bank employee told me that my signature did not match, and I had made a small error (had an extra check mark) on the form. I had filled the form in front of the employee and she checked it for any possible error.
The saga continued and after several email exchanges - asking for updates the Faridabad branch sent me the scanned form and asked me to correct the so-called error and sign the form and send a letter stating, that these are my latest signatures etc. I sent the required stuff. After about 2.5 months (mid march) I got access to my online account. I was happy to see my account online, but that happiness didn’t last long.
I was unable to transfer funds online. After, a few email exchanges and a several telephone calls to 1-866-ICICI-4U, I (and ICICI) had no clue as to what’s going on with my account. I sent an email to escalate the issue and got a reply after a few days, but the Head - Customer Service office was able to find out the real issue and updated me as promised. The problem was that, when I sent the scanned docs my online account was enabled but the transfers were frozen until I send them the originals of those docs. But, it wasn’t documented anywhere in the entire system, but perhaps in some register (as in note book) in the branch (I assume.)
I had contacted Citi Bank NRI services late last year. I had to send them the filled account opening form. While I was frustrated with ICICI bank, I received an email from Citi Bank that they have an open house in Berkeley (a city near by.) I went there and submitted the filled form to the banking officer. The email said that they would have a photo camera, so if I didn’t have the passport size pics, they can click them there. The banking officer told me that he could not get hold of the camera, but suggested me that there was a photography store near by. He didn’t know much about what other Indian banks are supported for online fund transfer and asked me to check it on the website (which I couldn’t find out, until I had an a/c). I was told that it will take about 15 days for my a/c to open.
With my ICICI experience and comments from friends that Citi Bank (India) isn’t that great, I hardly had any hopes. However, on the 14th day I got an (automated) email that my Citi NRE account has been opened and I will receive my checkbook and other stuff within next 2 weeks. Next day I got another (automated) email that INR XXXX has been deposited to my bank account. 2 days later, I received a UPS package from Chennai containing my Internet Password and PIN. Finally, a day later, I received another courier from Chennai containing my checkbook, ATM card etc. I setup my online account easily.
I used my Citi NRE account to transfer money to one of my friend’s Citi Bank account in India. I was shocked to find out that he received the money almost after 5 minutes. I think ICICI takes about 2 days for ICICI-ICICI bank transfer. I then used Citi Bank’s “Free Draft” service to send a few drafts. They were delivered free of cost to door step. The turn around time was also quick (2 working days max.)
Citi bank has an intelligent keyboard system to enter password. It helps to avoid potential key-loggers. I don’t understand why ICICI bank takes 2 days to transfer money from one ICICI bank account to other? Four or more consecutive failed attempts to login into ICICI Internet account, disables you user ID. The ID could only be enabled only after you send an email to nri@icici.com. In this age of the Internet, ICICI takes (at least) 2 working days to enable your Id. Haven’t they heard of something called “What is your mother’s maiden name?” They ask you to send your complete address and other A/C related info to the email and then I guess some human being matches it and enables your ID. Also, if you forget you password you call/write to ICICI and they courier your new password from India. I think all this can be made much simpler by an automated “forgot password” section.
On the whole, my experience with Citi bank has been much better than with ICICI bank. I wouldn’t blame the people working for ICICI for this, but the upper management who creates these non-customer-friendly systems. I think they have complicated things for themselves. I think 25% of the money they use for advertising should be devoted in their customer service department.
I would like to add that the above mentioned was my experience with ICICI and Citi banks in India. I knew few people who had good experience with ICICI bank’s NRI cell. One can not generalize the whole bank’s Customer Service using one incident.
From whatever I have understood after researching both the banks, I think if the primary goal for an NRE/NRO account is to transfer funds to India to family and for other purposes, then Citi Bank is a better choice. However, if you want to invest in Mutual Funds (pruicici.com) you don’t have too much choice as Citi Bank does not provide such a service till date. ICICI seems to have a monopoly in this sector and it doesn’t leave you with much choice.
BTW, I mailed my docs to ICICI’s NRI center today, let’s hope I get to use my own money by the end of April. Also, I should get a Rang De Basanti DVD from Citi Bank soon :).
Please do add your opinions/findings on this matter in the comments below.
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Are you an NRI and confused which bank is better to open an NRE/NRO Bank Account in India? Keep reading if you answered yes. A few months ago, I had the same confusion and doubt in my mind. I researched the opportunities these banks provided me.
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Dealing with HDFC & ICICI Banks continues to be a messy experience for me.
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And although I havent [yet] looked into alternatives to ICICI from an NRI standpoint - I have a feeling that all the alternatives from the competitors (Deutsche bank, ABN, Citibank, etc) will probably be about equal unless you have personal access to branches outside India where you can go in and meet people face to face - or if you have a "proxy" or a trusted friend / relative in India who knows someone inside the banking industry to help accelerate solutions to any problems you might be facing and stuck with a call centre agent who will not help you in anyway....
I do hope this has not hindered any prospective NRI clients as it is not meant to be a post of such a nature - just a post to mention that it would be (as the orignal poster has written) fantastic if some of the revenue from the banks advertising regime actually went into resolving some of the problems faced everyday by their clients - NRI or otherwise in order to make their banking experiences a lot simpler to deal with.
Matt C., (frustrated NRI client), Italy. (March 28 2007).
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I heard about CITI bank service how bad it is & very slow but I thought of trying it myself & so I had experience since November 2006 until April 10, 2007 (almost six months) I could not transfer money in automated way. Should I lose total respect to CITI bank? No I will see if it takes one year or several years to reach final goal of adding payee & paying bill.
Another thing when I opened account they told me I would get DVD of movie DON I never received it. Again it is fake & fooling experience. DVD doesn’t matter to me & its not my choice but still it is interesting how your bank is full of lies, slow & sluggish in processing every simple thing.
Is there any way CITI bank can speed up this process? I am not expecting for me because I still doing this an experiment to see when finally I can transfer money in automated way to my mother & pay bills. It could be really dream to be happened through CITI bank. Sorry to say the delay so sluggish process is really patience checking & sucks!
If CITI bank having some senses left or they have people with some business vision then they might try to find out speed up this process at least they can finish in one month not waiting like me for six months!
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Then things started going downhill. The bank expanded and now almost every branch has a NRI cell. But the back end processes were never streamlined nor fully integrated with the rest of the bank. Also, training seems to fall short.
The horrible integration of NRI features with regular features on the web site makes it hard to understand which features if any can be used by NRIs and which cannot. There is a lot of stale information on the web site and features disappear without a warning ...
Some personal notes:
(a) There used to be a customize option on the web site for giving your accounts friendly names, internationalizing date formats, etc - even the help talks about it, but the option is no longer there..
(b) Private banking is now called privilege banking, its the same thing but you get two different pages depending on how you access the site.
(c) Some features are restricted to NRIs in certain countries. US residents, for instance, cannot invest in mutual funds, but this is never clarified easily. Also, when you talk to customer service, they don't tell you that this is an ICICI bank only restriction and its in place because ICICI is trying to get a US retail banking license.. (US based NRIs can invest in Indian MFs using the appropriate procedures with other institutions.)
(d) Some pages still talk about Singapore branch overseas deposits, which are supposed to have better tax free interest rates. This facility is really no longer offered. Apparently, ICICI bank got in trouble over these with its US license application as these could be construed as instruments for tax evasion by US based NRIs.
(d) I am supposed to have a "relationship manager". The last time I tried to talk to the dude, I got no response over email. After multiple emails and waiting for a week, the only resort was to call up the bank directly. When I complained about the relationship manager, they asked me to send an email.
(e) I needed to prematurely close a deposit as I needed the money. So I requested through the web site "service request option" that the NRE FD account be closed. A day later I got an email response from a customer service dude asking if the account should be closed prematurely or on maturity. I responded back saying it should be closed prematurely. The next response back (again a day later) was truly mind blowing. He suggested that I go back through the web site and make the request - exactly the same as I had done in the first place.
(f) I helped a friend open a NRI account last year and the experience was horrible -- almost exactly as the original post. It took a couple of months to get the internet access working and confirm that the really really large sum (6 figures) that he had deposited via a check (and which had been very quickly debited from his US account) was actually in the account. The only reason he is still talking to me is because of his experience with HDFC bank with whom he had opened an account around the same time. They refused to take his local Indian address as the communication address and insisted on sending everything to his San Francisco home, even though he had told them that he would not be returning home for another month. He never got anything from HDFC bank at his US address...
(g) I am also a little worried about the level of security at ICICI bank. For instance, ICICI bank will send you a bank statement via email. But this email is plain-text (html) and includes full account details - numbers and amounts. I called up customer service and told them I wanted the email without full account numbers as done by other banks. This option is not there as they seem to think that email is secure. The same thing with NRI@icicibank.com, they often ask you to send sensitive information to this address that I would hesitate to reveal over a plan-text email that can be intercepted in transit. (trust me, I work in the computer networking field and know how easy it is to snoop on a company LAN or WIFI network.)
(h) Another security issue, major enough to warrant its own bullet. A side effect of the fact that you can access your ICICI bank account from any branch is that any branch officer can see all your account details. There does not seem to be any compartmentalization. And they can search by name, so an ill-motivated officer can get all your details from any branch in the country. There was a time when I had a to park a largish sum in the account and I started getting calls pitching various investment plans..
Having said the above, the only thing to add is that this experience may not be unique to ICICI, others may have similar horror stories. This lack of service is clearly an opportunity for a bank.
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I am so frustrated that i am ready to shut that account down as soon as my Citi gets operational. This is the dumbest set of people that i have ever worked with. At one time while opening my account I had a a little pissing contest with one of the employees and I have strong hunch that he sent me some nasty emails from one of his personal accounts and I kept receiving them for a few days. I did track them back to IP address in Tamil Nadu. But I could not prove that and since they were not threatening in nature there was no point in filing a report.
Actually I am sad that ICICI - possibly the only premier bank is going down the drain.
Oh well good riddance once I shut my account down.
I would not advise anyone to go via ICICI.
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On 11-Dec-07, nearly a month later, my folks get a call from the branch manager, Mr Rakesh Mehta, that they have lost the check.
My folks got that in writing from the bank. Technically I can't even sue them for damages or inconveniences. When you deposit a check with ICICI, they make you sign something equivalent of a bond which states that they are not responsible for lost checks.
I have photocopies of the deposit slip, check & the letter from ICICI if anyone is interested.
So, please beware of ICICI and use CITIBANK instead.
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1. The US address on website does not work
2. Customer service asks your email, phone # and full name every time you call, and after all that they do not have a way to identify your file. Because your file can only be accessed by some one who is in other office (all the time).
3. I mailed proof of address twice already and they seem to play around with the mails, lost the documents once and god knows what happend the second time.
4. I was reluctant to open the account after few months and receive phone calls everyday all of a sudden after 3 months of silence. And surprisingly they wont call you back at your convenience (I received the calls during work hours and I request they call me after couple of hours).
The list goes on and on.....
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Sorry, I had opposite experience with citi NRI acct. I did change my address at citi NRI account. It took them 8 months to change my postal address. It was same issue...my signature did not match. So they asked me all photo copies of driver license, passport, etc.
It was a pain.
Everytime, i called them...I dont have my acct number handy and they refuse to look up my account by SS or other things.
I am waiting to join another bk.
DP
Thanks,
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Regarding my experience with SBI....God knows when customer representatives will understand what customer service is all about. ok here is my story, since SBI was offering online banking too, I thought its a good idea to sign up for one, in order to do so there is no online form for that, you have to print out a form and then submit it to a bank. After that’s done they will mail you a temporary user name and password, my mail was never delivered saying it had an undeliverable address. God know what address they had over the envelope… any how my dad went to the bank and I got my online signup info. It had a username and password which while login always use to fail, so I trying the forget my password link in which after including all the details i.e. account #, name, branch, location it use to say wrong account #. My frustration had no limit. I called the bank representative he said my account needs to be activated and it will be effective next day onwards, its 8 months now I am yet to see that next day..... Every time I call they note down the account # for which I wanted online account enable for and the story never moved any further than this and there false promises kept getting bigger and bigger.....I expressed my anger and frustration but it all went to deaf ears.
Once I called… and some one else answered the call apparently the main person responsible for internet banking was on holiday. So this fellow after listening to my grievance assured me he will take care of everything and to my surprise acknowledged his knowledge is very limited in terms of internet banking but at least he was honest. The next line he said shocked me....I still remember his line "Sir, you have waited for 8 months so please waits for few more days" can you believe this....lol
anyhow I am yet to see my account online... and other big blunder from SBI , on the website it says one will receive two different mail one with username and other with password, but the letter which was handed over to my dad contained both the username and password in same envelope.....
So this is the INDIA shining story, some time I really think is India really shining at the grass root level or just the business getting big and big and that’s what they mean by "INDIA SHINING"
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Just a repeat of what everyone say but this time with CITIBANK NRI services. It took me 3-4 months to get the account opened, after 20 phone calls and fear of lost check. The account still intrigues me a lot as they created two account on my name. Website is not very easy to use. Recently I wanted to ask them about NRO fixed deposits and it took 2 hours to figure out that someone will call later to explain the needful.
There no value for time, there is no value for business and there is no sense of getting any work done. I think the guys are paid for pushing paper around. God knows when things would improve, I keep thinking of moving to India, but fear about how I can cope up with such stupidity in every step of the way!!!
-Balaji
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I also wrote a similar post : http://spadhye.blogspot.com/2008/01/experience-...
Btw ..now that I already have citibank, I have an issue where not all Schemes from the AMCs are offered by Citibank to invest ? Is it true for HDFC or ICICI also ? Is there any restrictions from AMCs or it just thatbank has decided that NRI can only invest in these schemes ?
Please revert back if anyone has any clarification regarding this.
regards
Sandeep