Finance Choices
ICICI Savings Account
ICICI UK Bank is the UK subsidiary of India's second-largest bank. It has been open for business in the UK since November 2003 and offers a full range of banking products.
The one that caught the attention of Bruce and I is the online HiSave savings account. It launched paying a whopping 5.4%, which was reduced to 5.15% in November 2005.
Sonjoy Chatterjee, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI UK Bank told me the main reason why it is not compliant is because customers are not able to change their card Pin to a four-digit number of their own choosing. He explained that the bank's operating system was being upgraded to enable customers to do this and he hoped it would be ready in the first half of this year.
But there are several other aspects of the bank that I am still not entirely comfortable with. For instance, Mr Chatterjee told us that the average length of time it takes for a transfer to arrive from the saver's current account to their HiSave account is eight working days.
This is compared to three days with most online accounts, meaning that savers lose around a week of interest every time they do a transfer. We could find no mention of the time period in the terms and conditions for the account although Mr Chatterjee assured us that customers were aware of this.
He told us they had addressed several aspects of the bank's customer service that we raised with him several months ago. Readers complained their emails were going unanswered, phones in the customer service department were ringing out and it was impossible to get problems sorted out.
He said it was now standard for account holders to have a reply to emails within one day. He also said extra customer service staff had been employed, although he would not be drawn on how many. He also would not say how many British savers had opened a HiSave account or whether the bank planned to further the reduce the rate. It guarantees to stay 0.25% above the base rate until December 2007.
Importantly, ICICI is covered by the FSA compensation scheme which means that the bulk of your savings up to £32,000 are protected.
Susan Hannums, savings manager at AWD Chase de Vere told me that they were watching closely monitoring the bank's activities, but were not recommending it.
'We haven't used them yet and there's nothing particularly wrong with them but we're just sitting back and waiting for the dust to settle a bit,' she said.
'I understand their customer service is appalling and it was taking people weeks just to get their account set up. But they are covered by the FSA compensation scheme, which is the main thing.'
Finance Choices verdict: The bottom line is that your money is protected by the FSA and the rate is good. But we're reluctant to recommend an institution that does not meet minimum customer service standards and that routinely takes eight working days for funds to be transferred. We've heard so many mixed stories about ICICI that we urge caution. We agree with Susan Hannums. Stick with what you know until their UK record is better established.
Find our more about the ICICI Savings Account now.
The one that caught the attention of Bruce and I is the online HiSave savings account. It launched paying a whopping 5.4%, which was reduced to 5.15% in November 2005.
Sonjoy Chatterjee, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI UK Bank told me the main reason why it is not compliant is because customers are not able to change their card Pin to a four-digit number of their own choosing. He explained that the bank's operating system was being upgraded to enable customers to do this and he hoped it would be ready in the first half of this year.
But there are several other aspects of the bank that I am still not entirely comfortable with. For instance, Mr Chatterjee told us that the average length of time it takes for a transfer to arrive from the saver's current account to their HiSave account is eight working days.
This is compared to three days with most online accounts, meaning that savers lose around a week of interest every time they do a transfer. We could find no mention of the time period in the terms and conditions for the account although Mr Chatterjee assured us that customers were aware of this.
He told us they had addressed several aspects of the bank's customer service that we raised with him several months ago. Readers complained their emails were going unanswered, phones in the customer service department were ringing out and it was impossible to get problems sorted out.
He said it was now standard for account holders to have a reply to emails within one day. He also said extra customer service staff had been employed, although he would not be drawn on how many. He also would not say how many British savers had opened a HiSave account or whether the bank planned to further the reduce the rate. It guarantees to stay 0.25% above the base rate until December 2007.
Importantly, ICICI is covered by the FSA compensation scheme which means that the bulk of your savings up to £32,000 are protected.
Susan Hannums, savings manager at AWD Chase de Vere told me that they were watching closely monitoring the bank's activities, but were not recommending it.
'We haven't used them yet and there's nothing particularly wrong with them but we're just sitting back and waiting for the dust to settle a bit,' she said.
'I understand their customer service is appalling and it was taking people weeks just to get their account set up. But they are covered by the FSA compensation scheme, which is the main thing.'
Finance Choices verdict: The bottom line is that your money is protected by the FSA and the rate is good. But we're reluctant to recommend an institution that does not meet minimum customer service standards and that routinely takes eight working days for funds to be transferred. We've heard so many mixed stories about ICICI that we urge caution. We agree with Susan Hannums. Stick with what you know until their UK record is better established.
Find our more about the ICICI Savings Account now.
posted by Barbara Gordon at 1:29 PM
ICICI Savings Account
12 Comments:
Unlike other banks in Singapore, ICICI bank are unable to accept fixed deposits for the period one requires. It offers only certain fixed periods ie. 1 month, 3 months etc., so if one places say three different amounts/deposits on different dates, one will never be able to consolidate ones investments without placing funds on call at a lower interest rate, while awaiting the maturities to join up! One thus has, say, three horses going round the race track and they will never reach the finishing line together!
Despite numerous requests and emails, I still do not know who and why charges were levied on my incoming tt's. Both ICICI and the remitting bank say they never deducted fees, yet thirty dollars had been removed from the account. I just cannot get to the bottom of this.
If one puts up with the frustrations listed above, this bank offers the best deal in Singapore... By far.
My bank dropped its e-saving rate, so I looked around for the best rate. ICICI bank offered the best rate, so I set up an account, and I had no problems, and it was set up as per their time scale. When set up, I made a few transfers in and out of the account to check that all worked well. First class! I was then happy to make a larger commitment.
I am frustrated with ICICI Bank. They don't understand the value of a customer and waste their time like any thing. Banking with them is a an experience from hell.
I have many stories with sufficient proof, and I will highlight one of them here.
I have a bank account with their Rohini, New Delhi Branch. Whenever I go to the bank some people from the bank roam around and try to persuade me to have a credit card.
Mistakenly I applied for one card in anticipation that it would be easy for me to pay the dues via my bank account.
On 9th April 2006 I applied for a card and my house verification was done on 15th May 2006. After calling them many times I have not received any suitable reply.
On 4th May 2006, when I called their customer service department, they put my phone on hold for 9 minutes, and after that I discovered that there had been no application received. I can't argue, as they never provided me with a receipt of the application.
Is this the right way to deal with a customer?? Please look at my losses:
1. I throw away my existing Citibank Card once they have done the verification.
2. All my bills are paid through CC, so I am unable to pay many of them, which have a mandatory requirement of paying through CC.
3. 2 full months time lost, and they need a fresh application again.
This is a wonderful example of depriving a consumer?s right. Banking with these organizations is a nightmare. I have reported the issue to RBI and other consumer cooperative agencies. I will update this once I receive a reply from them.
I have been with ICICI for 3 months now and found them fantastic. Transfers to my bank account are made at the click of a button and arrive within 3-4 working days.
Interest is paid monthly and on time. The account took very little time to open. Any e-mails I have sent have been replied to within around 5 hours.
Please don't go on one negative opinion - Whilst they had some teething problems last year, they are now the best place to store your savings to earn top dollar, if you have already maxed your ISA and regular saver accounts.
Equally, 99 experiences the other way shouldn't count for much - outfits with legendarily bad service, such as talktalk and NTL, probably manage to serve 99% of their customers effectively. The issue is that their 1% screwup rate may be 100 or 1,000 times worse than what other banks achieve.
There's a competence threshold ICICI failed to meet on launch and which in my case they continue not to meet. They still have not found a way to enable me to transfer money into the account. Out, yes. In, no. The only way to add funds is to send in a paper cheque, which takes around 6 weeks to be credited. Online transfers are impossible.
If an online bank can't arrange online money transfers, then I have to wonder what else they are quietly screwing up behind the scenes, where we don't all immediately notice - don't you? Credit status reporting? Data protection? ID theft prevention, anyone?
I'm getting 4.75% a year elsewhere. This costs me £300 a year or so versus getting ICICI's rate, but it's money well spent since it spares me having to deal with ICICI.
I transfer money to ICICI from my First Direct account all the time, takes 3-4 days, and if I need to transfer it back, takes same amount of time.
E-mails I have sent them (regarding other products they have) have been answered swiftly.
I opened an account which was very easy to do, although some of the email communications were a little vague. However all the money I sent was credited and I am enjoying the highest rate of interest around.
The main concern I have is the time it takes to deposit money ? up to eight days which I feel is too long so I continue to use my ING account to make irregular movements of money. I wish they could sort this out.
I applied for one of these accounts back in October last year. I have to admit I don't know much about financial services, but I do like to keep an eye out for the best interest rates etc, and yes, I admit I am what you could call a rate tart!
So, with my limited knowledge I'll try and give a brief overview of what this savings account is like. It's the UK branch of the Indian bank ICICI. Their HiSave account is an online account which pays 5.15% AER. They've branches in Knightsbridge, Leicester, Manchester, Southall, and Wembley, and it's a free phone number to contact them on, or you can contact them by email. They offer other personal banking accounts and corporate accounts, but I only hold the HiSave account with them.
I applied online for this account once I saw it was recommended on a couple of financial best buy websites. I haven't got thousands to save so I figured it was a safe bet seeing as the bank is regulated by the FSA (Financial Services Authority) as you are guaranteed the first £2000 of money invested returned to you if the bank goes into administration or anything like that.
Applying for the account was pretty easy - just needed to enter all my details like applying for any other bank account/credit card. The same day as I applied I had an email to say they had received the application and it would take 2 days to process it. The next day I received an email stating they needed me to post some identification documents to them so they could verify my address. Five days later I had been accepted and all that was needed to open my account ready for use was a cheque from the bank account I wanted to be linked to this one. Now, I got a bit confused over this part - I made a cheque payable to myself like I was told to do and posted it off. I hadn't realised that to link the accounts they would set up a direct debit in my current account. Part of the confusion arose because they didn't set up just one direct debit they set up two, and neither of them had any kind of indication as to what they were for! I ended up phoning my current account branch to see if they could tell me what the direct debits were for and then asked them to cancel them both as I wanted to put money into my savings account by standing order so I had the control over how much to put in there. I emailed ICICI to tell them this, and they emailed me back to explain the direct debits were there so I could control the amount to be transferred to and from the account - oops, I'd already cancelled them! Luckily because the direct debit was initially set up the money can still get back into my current account (I played around moving fivers back and forth to see how long it would take to get from one account to the other!)
Nineteen days after initially applying for the account it was set up completely and ready to use, and I've been using it ever since for savings and for transferring money back into my current account.
I understand from other people that there were a few teething problems with accounts being opened as the company wasn't prepared for the overwhelming response from new customers as a result of being at the top of so many best buy tables. I found it pretty painless to open my account though. I did have to call them to ask a few questions and obviously as they are an Indian bank you do get through to an Indian voice at the other end of the telephone. Their English is superb though and they are patient and listen to your query before advising you. If you have queries regarding your account once it is open you can email your bank manager who responds in 2-3 days.
The actual online account site isn't the greatest - it's secure and you can access everything, but the navigation isn't the simplest. After using it a few times you get to grips with it, but the first time is confusing, it's not like any other online banking site I've come across!
I'd recommend this account to anyone that wants to save and doesn't want to be able to access their savings too easily. As it is an online account you can see your balance 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It takes about 4 days to transfer money into your savings account and 4 days to transfer it back into your current account. As you can only have one linked account it means you can only transfer money out of the savings into one predetermined account (i.e. your current account) As this takes less than a week it means it is quite accessible, but enough hassle to mean you don't dip into your savings unnecessarily!
ICICI are appalling in all respects, their online site is lousy, their communications diabolical in every respect and their rates are easily matched within the UK. Thinking about using them?..don?t.
I speak from experience.
Fantastic interest rate, very poor customer service. As you can probably tell, I had a bad experience with ICICI and have since transferred my money to an IceSave account, which offers the same interest rate (or it did last time I looked).
I've documented my experience here:
ICICI Rigmorale
Arkad
It takes just a single day when money was directly deposited to my account. and if I need to transfer it back, takes same amount of time.
I had no problems with my ICICI bank account as the bank offers the best rate, since i set up my account.
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