Citibank Vs ICICI. Review on Citibank

I opened my account in Citibank almost 5 years back when I was told that as a company policy my salary will be credited to a Citibank account. Earlier I had an account in ICICI for the last 7 years now. Having an account in both the banks helped me to compare their services. Though some of the differences could be attributed to the city where the accounts are present - Bangalore in my case, but I think more or less they can be generalized throughout the country.

I found Citibank much more professional in outlook. Their services were clearly focussed on the set of people who can deal with the bank through the internet - specially the website. Their website is very easy to navigate and has all the features that one can think of. It took me close to an year to get the ICICI Internet HPIN, since it used to either get locked every now and then or it used to expire. Somehow I was not at all impressed with the ICICI bank's website. They had far lesser features for the customers. Though I must admit that now they have incorporated most of them.

Everyone knows that Citibank discourages people from visiting the bank itself. Which is why they had these extra service charges for visit to the bank. And that probably forced them to provide all features on the web. I have found the ICICI bank offices almost crowded with people. It gives you the same look and feel and quality of service as a public sector bank.

Also, Citibank was the first to come out with Suvidha - a debit card, and has continued to have the advantage of an early starter. Besides, Citibank has many more ATMs at least in Bangalore, which makes it easier for most people to transact. Though, once again I must admit that ICICI is also catching up pretty fast. Infact, the 8 AM to 8 PM timings for the ICICI banks, are a key differentiator. For most people needing to visit banks after/before office hours, this is just excellent. I have used this service, and I found it impressive since the rush is less and hence the quality of service is good.

With Citibank I am able to get alerts for salary credits, checks realized, regular account balances etc, which either I have not been aware of or are unavailable in ICICI until recently.

The plethora of other services offered and aggressively offered by Citibank outweighs ICICI in most cases. I had a reasonable amount of money in my Savings account in both Citi and ICICI for a while. A representative from Citi approached me and followed up with me, until I had invested my money in some short term debt schemes - something that I wanted but never had a clue about.

ICICI representative on the other hand, came and doled out a Private Banking customer gift, promising much better service. But they never cared to figure out if they could help me get a better return for the my money stuck in a Savings account. I was particularly unimpressed with ICICI and henceforth have continued to trust more in Citibank.

Though for legacy reasons, I continue to use operate both the accounts, given a choice Citibank would be my first preference.