NRI Accounts with ICICI. Review on ICICI Bank

NRI's and ICICI Bank - that would be a tale of strange bedfellows.

A couple of months back I approached ICICI Bank through email requesting them to forward me details for opening an NRI account. I had to give them my phone number and e-mail address. A week after my request, I began receiving calls from one of their Sales Staff from ICICI Call Center in Bombay (lets call her Ms. K) who sounded like she was ordering me to open an account. Fine - that's the way Sales pitch takes place in Indian organisations. I was given their Toll free number to contact in case I had any queries. That's a good thing. As I set to do the documentation work, I found that I had to give my local Bank details. I stay at home and I do not have a Bank account in my name here in the US. Their Call Center people whom I contacted said that it was okay for me to give my husband's bank details. I got this confirmed again and I sent the required documents to my family members in India asking them to open the account. In the meantime, Ms K called me up and was furious as to why I had sent the documents to my family instead of sending it to her. She categorically told me that ''Now no one will help you.'' Great way to talk to a potential customer.

The branch in Hyderabad where my documents were submitted refused to open the account unless I provide them my bank details in the US. They were strict on this one. I pulled out my forms.

A few days later I approached SBI, Washington DC. I was told that a stay-at-home woman can open an NRI account in India. Their documentation work was more practical as it specified that a home maker can submit documents of her husband where necessary, for instance, husband's pay stub and proof of address in husband's name. SBI has accepted my forms and the whole process was fairly simple. SBI does not have a Call Center where you find yuppies speaking in an alien accent to their own countrymen and providing wrong information. Neither does it have sales people who threaten you of no help if you do not follow their orders.

Moral of the story - Do not go by fancy interiors and plush offices, sugar coated sales people wearing Western attire and speaking in Western Accents offering you no tangible service. Our traditional banks may not be so inviting in their looks or in the way their people work. But they provide you with practical solutions.