Life with Citibank. Review on Citibank

NEW ADDITION:

Circa 2007,some of my opinions about citibank has undergone a change. After three more years after I wrote my first review here, I thought of writing some additional stuff that would reflect my opinion on the bank. After all it is not fair to criticise them all the time, if the bank does end up doing some good work!

I have been holding a salary account with them since 2000 april. One of the most interesting thing they let me do is to send a draft online - free to any place in India. Also, they have an investment section in their online banking letting you invest in mutual funds, debt funds, liquid funds et al. But that said, they dont charge you for the account. For icici, they force you to take a icicidirect account and charge you some 550 bucks per year!

I got a mail from them one day saying my account has been upgraded to "priority" account. Basically it means that a relationship manager is assigned to me. But this person only sends useless mails to my account - effectively another spammer. For "small" folks like me, they really dont care much about the account, the "priority" name notwithstanding. They did not even bother to call me on my phone and tell me about the same (icici called my wife when her account was "upgraded" to priority account - their manager called and introduced very politely).

The trouble with citibank is if anything goes wrong - you get screwed. You end up on their phone lines for a long time - and usually the call center folks are not of help if what you ask is a little bit out of their normal routine stuff.

These days they have sms facility too - they will send sms updates to your phone, though sometimes it can be a nuisance.

Miracle - I just got a call from my relationship manager when I was writing these words down. She says now citibank has partnership with SBI for their mutual funds also. Wow, good going citibank!!

Citibank is great if you dont intend to walk to the bank and talk to the real people. They want you to do everything online - which is just fine with folks like me. If you prefer dealing with a real person, citibank is NOT for you.

SUMMARY:

Positives:

online banking is convenient.

online investment account - very useful, truly classic.

Negatives:

Knowledge of call center folks

Bank want you to do only online stuff - visits to the bank is charged!

In 2004:

I am a Citibank Suvidha customer. This is regarding the arrogance with which Citibank treats its customers. I have had a very harrowing experience recently and wish to elaborate on that, for the benefit of people unaware of it. Today morning I found out that my account is COMPLETELY FROZEN. Can you believe that? I am not a criminal or anything, just a normal person like any of you. It means I cannot do ANY transaction on the account. This is not a joke or an exaggeration, it is the actual state of things. It means I cannot do any transaction in ATM or phone or on the net with Citibank. The reason given to me was my account statements bounced back when sent to the specified address. Now to get into the details. I was told by the bank (please note that) that electronic statments are better so that you can avoid the paper work and stuff. They send electronic statements every quarter to the specified email address. In other words, I was told I will be sent NO paper statements at all. Now the bank states that the paper statements have bounced back from my first office address which was valid till 2002 Feb. The email address I had given them is still very much valid, and surprisingly the bank just decided NOT to send any electronic statement - and reverted back to paper. How on earth am I supposed to know when Citibank pleases to change its policies. Before freezing the account, which is the last resort any decent bank should do, they could have mailed me in the ''home'' address I had given them. As a customer it is my right to be informed about all that. Looks like Citibank is concerned ONLY about their high networth customers, who have more than 50 lakh rupee in account. I knew that the change of address had to be done and had contacted the bank at least 5-6 times, even faxed my new address to them, but there has been ABSOLUTELY NO response. The address still remained the same. Now it seems their policy has changed and faxing the address is not enough. What is more mysterious is that my demat account statements come to the home address I had provided. I do not know why on earth citibank decided to send them to the home address. I have been trying to reach them and obviously the call goes to come call center and the people there have no idea of the whom I should contact IN PERSON to address the issue. They say I have to send a letter to Chennai office and AFTER 4 days of receipt of the letter the account will be opened, as if they are doing a great favour to me. They do have a 24 hr telephone access system and net banking, but what use is it if the fundamental attitude itself is pathetic? I had deposited a cheque to the account and it got credited. But now I cannot use that money till the powers-that-be condescends to change my mailing address. Please note that even though the account was frozen they had no problem accepting money INTO the account. All the rubbish applies only to money that flows OUT of the account. In other words Citibank is just playing around with people's money as they choose. I am writing this to warn all of you about the troubles ahead when you choose to bank with a ''high profile'' faceless bank like CITIBANK. Dont get too impressed by the apparent simplicity they offer for many things - they come at a high cost and some dire experiences. They know all too well that in India they can choose to play around with customers as they choose and no one is going to crib. I am of the opinion, after these experiences, that our traditional nationalised banks are a lot better than these flashy guys -- at least you have a person to talk to directly to address your problem, not some unknown voice over phone who ''instructs'' you for ''your benefit''. For the info of people who bank in Bangalore, where I am currently, Citibank has about 29 ATMS while Corporation Bank has about 60+. It is just that the Corporation Bank does not make too much noise about it. And you dont have to go through all these horrible stuff. Agreed, Corp and similar banks have slightly slothful employees and are not as flashy as the rest, but they dont con you majorly and to add insult to injury, add sweet talk to justify their crime.