Being a customer from the very early days of this bank, I have been witness to the up s and downs of this institution. I used to feel proud to bank with them ... would feel safe with my money in their hands ... would brag about their superior customer orientation to my friends. But no longer.

I’ll tell you why I have already opened an account with another bank and will gradually shift all my assets there unless HDFC Bank shows signs of improvement:

1. They treat you like a liability if you visit the branch and like sh*t if it is not your home branch. - I do most of my transactions through ATMs and NetBanking, but still on the rare occasions that I need to visit the branch, I usually come back with bad experience.

2. Unreasonable service charges - There is a service fee for everything and that too a high fee. Simple things like depositing cash to a non-home branch, or paying your credit card bill at the cash counter attracts Rs. 100/-!!

3. Customer Care sucks - The email customer support is ineffective and often ridiculous. Though I must give them credit for quick responses within one business day, they still fail to resolve issues smoothly.

4. Poor ATM - HDFC has the slowest ATMs I have ever seen. God knows if they buy these things second-hand. It takes years to even insert the card into these contraptions.

5. Net Banking downtime - Half the features of Net Banking do not work if you try to access them at night. They never finish system upgrades on time causing major outages. Added on 14 September 2008: Now the Netbanking sections stays unavailable very often (at least twice a week) without any advance warning. So they want us to go back to the good old days of cheque books rather than take the risk of missing a payment deadline because  you never know when the site will go down!

6. Lack of security - HDFC Bank has been the target of numerous security breaches including the latest phishing scam. Makes me wonder how safe my money is in their hands.

7. Complacence - I think this is what is spelling doom for them. It seems they really believe that they are still the best bankers and can continue to throw their weight around. What they do not realise is that others have caught up and are offering better service at lower costs.

HDFC, wake up or soon you’ll be compared with the likes of ICICI and UBI!

How long have you been with this Bank?

Between 7 - 10 years