Review of 12 years . Review on Citibank MasterCard Credit Card

I have been using Citibank Since year 2000 or 1999 when I opened my Suvidha account with citibank, at that time average balance requirement was just Rs 1, 000. Not many people used to take citibank because they had 1 or 2 branch in whole Delhi and few ATMs. But I took it because I use to feel happy in getting Rs 1000 new notes, which only citibank ATMs used to dispense at that time. Now I am their Gold customer, but many time due to glitches in their system they keep on moving me between Gold & Suvidha. But I dont care, because even for Suvidha, NEFT, RTGS, Draft, any bank withdrawal are free. at-least I have not been charged for it.

Around 2002 or so,  Citibank started mass marketing and opened alot of salary account, and given many credit cards. I have used many Citibank Credit card including their Visa Signature. I have found citibank to be very professional in comparison to other Indian banks like HDFC, ICICI, Axis, IDBI etc. I had domestic bank card, but had to close as they never listen to your dispute with Merchant. Citibank investigate it thoroughly and Mostly cases are resolved in my favour except twice recently, which I noticed is not due to bank policy but due to very low quality of staff they have started employing recently, Its hard to explain these people, and only when query reaches senior manager, they are able to understand instantly. Though they apologize and resolve the issue, I don't like the fact that I have to waste so much time and energy into something which should have been understood by Junior CRE too.

Every bank has bad side, I found Citibank & HSBC to be good but now days they need alot of average balance, more than what they ask in US for similar services.

Cons of Citibank

1.  Customer service is Degrading, every year, in early 2000 it used to be best.

2.  Their relationship manager are to get money out of your pocket and put it into the pocket of Bank, their partners(Insurance, MF, etc) and their own. Stay away from them, Dont listen to them. use your own brain, its your own Money.

3.  PremierMiles.co.in Is not citibank, but their partner who are very bad in customer service, and their terms are not competitive, better book it at individual airline website OR at travel company. This site gives 10 miles, Airline sites also give 10 Miles, but travel sites like Yatra, cleartrip, kayak etc will give you 4 miles only. But if you have to cancel the ticket due to wrong booking within 24 hrs, this site will take huge cancellation charges whereas travel sites void your ticket costing you nothing. It is big point, atleast those who travel regularly realise its importance. Mistakes are common.

4.  KYC is very weak, they change address etc online without any proof, due to this no Govt department and some telephone company dont take their statement as address proof.

5.   Fixed Deposit Rate & normal Saving interest rates are lowest among all the bank

Pros of Citibank

1.  You can do almost everything online except for cash withdrawl, Singature verification etc.

2.   NEFT, RTGS, Draft, Alerts are free

3.   Credit card are mostly free

4.   Very competetive loan offers on card.

5.   Very user friendly & reliable internet banking.

I have written this review in 10 minutes, I may have missed many points, Please feel free to write me about points I have missed, I will include them above in both lists.

Thank you for reading my review.

If you like my review, Please mark it as useful:)

==== added on 6th August=

1.   They charged my account twice aginst standing instruction i.e. They took money from my citibank account twice against total credit card due.

2.   I asked for Visa Signature Card and they delivered Master World Card!

3.   They dispatched the card in August, but charged the fees for July too

It was really big task to explain the above simple thing, because of poor level of knowledge current executive have. Citibank has increased average balance limits and closed many free cards, It is strange to see that citibank worked so good even in recession, but now they seems to be going in a direction where they will loose alot of customer. But again, as of now, there is no one else better than citibank:(