Don't bank with Citibank. Review on Citibank

Well I had the experience of banking with Citibank guys few years back (around 3 to be precise). To set the ball rolling, I had to open a "salary account" with Citibank as this was the requirement of my new employer. At that time I had the experience of dealing with ICICI bank(again salary account) and with nationalized banks(on personnel basis). After few days of filling and submitting the necessary forms and documents, I got a call from Citibank guys for VERIFICATIONpurpose. (Please notice the caps here). The first question the caller asked was my date of birth. And after I had replied to this VERIFICATIONquestion, I was bombarded with the details of all sort of credit cards that Citibank had to offer.

The caller was so rude and adamant that she was willing to listen to my pleadings that I don't require any credit card. Luckily for me this beating happened only once and there were no further VERIFICATIONcalls from Citibank. Next another even more horrifying incident occurred after few months of opening the account when I had sizeable balance in it. I got a call from Citibank guys who were very eager to advice me as to how should I invest my money. The caller even knew what balance I am maintaining in my account !!!!! I was shocked to hear this and was surprised how a bank can do such nonsense. Why on the earth anyone should know my bank balance and try to advice me on investments.

The interesting part is that during this conversation I asked that if Citibank is trying to sell me some insurance policies then what is the difference between this bank and an insurance agent? As expected the gentleman on the other side of the phone didn't had any answer. What I feel is that passing on the account details to some unknown sales people  is the most unprofessional and unethical thing a bank can do. So my first reaction after this call was to transfer all the money from Citibank. I think there is no need to mention that I closed my account on the first given oppurtunity.

At the end I would only say beware of banking with Citibank and if you indeed to do, keep the balance to minimum in your Citibank account.Till then keep writing. Well based on my experience with the Citibank, I am not surprised that one of it's Relationship Manager was able to scam millions of rupees.