Some things that I like of HDFC Bank
It's been 2-3 years since I opened an account with HDFC Bank.
The period till now is of not much trouble. Some trouble I experienced
was with the small area of my branch which is not sufficient to
comfortably accomodate large crowd.
Anyway let's talk about their services. My overall experience with
this bank is good.
The begining...
When I first received my ATM card, the card came
properly fixed on a letter to its customer. You will get your
cheque book and ATM card in a good looking envelope. Shortly you
will receive the PIN codes. Since I applied for the NetBanking also,
I received the NetBanking codes too.
Net Banking
After depositing some amount after my account was opened, I immediately
used its NetBanking facility. The NetBanking is simply superb and
very user-friendly. As I logged-in to my account, I saw my mini-statement
and other options provided were also easy to use and informative.
One other feature of HDFC NetBanking that impressed me was the ''One-View''
registration. You can register for this feature on their site itself.
With ''One-View'' you can log-in once and can see all of your balance
and statements with some other popular banks in one window, like
ICICI, IDBI, UTI etc..
Since I was having an account with the ICICI bank at that time, ''One-View''
asked me for the ICICI Bank's NetBanking UserID and Password which
I use to log-on to ICICI NetBanking. I entered it and it stored.
Believe me, it is absolutely safe.
Every critical online transaction is carried out with 128-bit SSL security.
Never ever use Net Banking from Cyber-Cafes. Always use it
from home and keep your browser regularly updated with all new patches.
With ''One-View'', whenever I logged-in, my ICICI statement, HDFC statement
were displayed in one window. You don't need to log-in to ICICI site.
Online Shopping
It was a wonderful experience. The HDFC gateway is very easy, secure
to use. As soon as the transaction is over, your balance will be
updated immediately.
As far as shopping is concerned, HDFC cards are widely accepted and
you will find HDFC Glowsign boards hanging in-front of most of the
shops.
Other impressing thing I noted while depositing cash was the ''Pay-In-Slip''
book. If you ask for the book, you will get one. Not charged for that.
You just write once on the slip and its impression is carried down
automatically. It is a new-style as compared to ICICI Bank's ordinary
Pay-In Slips.
Major advantage
Whenever I used to check my balance quarterly, I noticed that money
grows fast in HDFC bank. In HDFC Bank, the interest is capitalized
quarterly whereas, I did not notice any such thing with ICICI and other
Public Sector Banks. HDFC is very regular in capitalizing the
interest rates quarterly.
I don't know much about it, but investing in HDFC is advantageous
as compared to ICICI.
Customer Support
Whenever I emailed HDFC for some problem, they were very prompt in
answering. So my experience is good.
_________________________________________
Some things I don't like about this bank
(1) This may vary from branch to branch. My branch has no seating
arrangement for the customers. If the queue is long, one has to
wait standing.
(2) Most of the HDFC branches have small area. This is not sufficient
to accomodate large crowd.
(3) The working hours are till 3:30 pm whereas in ICICI bank it till 8
in the night. It would be good if HDFC stretched the working hours
to atleast 5 pm.
(4) Once while depositing a large cash, I was asked to sort-out the
currency. I mean, they will not accept old currency, new currencies will
be accepted and that too properly arranged. This wastes a lot-of time.
(5) Poor ATM network. In my city there is only one and that too attached
to the branch. You have to carefully locate them.
(6) You can only deposit Rs. 49,000/- in a day, same as ICICI. In this
matter, our Public Sector banks are good, where we can invest upto
any amount.
My Decision
Service Class guys, Beware!
Before opening account, request for the Tarriff list and take a
careful look. There may be hidden costs.
The banking atmosphere in the branches is not very good. As I wrote
above, HDFC branches have small area as compared to that of ICICI.
However satisfactory.
Before making big investments like in FD's, carefully read their
terms and conditions and about their facility as well.
However, I would recommend our old, all time favorite, SBI, for
anything above 1 lakh.
I worry about HDFC becoming ICICI after gathering enough customers,
i.e., charge for everything.
__________________
Rohit.
