''ICICI Bank''. Review on ICICI Bank

When I saw ?ICICI Bank? under the ?Reviews Wanted? Column, I was reminded of my own Article on the Bank explaining the inefficiency of the Bank. I was surprised to see that so many other MS members had also expressed a similar view on the Bank.

I do not understand how a Bank established & very well net-worked having as many branches as 470 and ATMs of about 1,790 and named as the India?s Second Largest Bank could make so many Indians express opinion of dissatisfaction about the Bank. But I think when the Bank was originally promoted in the year 1994 in India, mostly people had a very good opinion about the services of the Bank.

ICICI Bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialized Subsidiaries and affiliates in the areas of Investment Banking, Life and non-life Insurance, venture capital and asset management.

ICICI Bank has set up its international Banking Group in Fiscal 2002 to cater to the cross-border needs of clients and leverage on its domestic banking strengths to offer products internationally. ICICI Bank currently has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Canada, branches in Singapore and Bahrain and representative offices in the United States, China, United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh.

I?ve worked in ICICI Bank on a contract basis for a period of 90 days, and as far as I had noticed their internal working system, ICICI is pretty good but the number of customers are very much on the higher side beyond their controllable limits. That may also be one of the reasons for the inefficiency in their services.

As I had mentioned about a few instances in my other review on ICICI Bank, as globally agreed upon, ICICI Bank as a whole is very unfriendly to its customers. As long as you maintain a simple SB Account or a Powerpay Account, there is not much of a problem due to the fact that their ATMs are extensively available all over the city almost in every area. In some areas, there are even more than one ATM Centre and since they are operated round-the-clock, ICICI Bank in spite of their unfriendly customer service, has attracted many customers.

OK, if you an ICICI Bank account holder, you should definitely know something. Once you are into some problem like transferring your account to another branch, change of address, single to double holder of the account & vice-versa?., etc. then you are into deep trouble. Believe me, I have personally witnessed all these problems. Also, especially with the Powerpay Accounts, it is a TOTAL MESS? No doubt about it !!!!!!!

Initially although they enter into agreements with Companies for ?0? Balance Account Maintenance, free ATM cum Debit Cards etc. etc?., when it comes to transactions with them, sooner or later as they keep changing their principles, it automatically becomes applicable to you even without any prior notice from the Bank. The worst part of it, is their credit cards billing system. I read many reviews on MS about the ICICI Bank Credit Cards and came to understand that what I know about the bank is only very less and there are lots more ahead for me to learn about the Bank.

While there are lot of Banks in the city which are more customer-oriented, I don?t think it is worth investing in a Bank like the ICICI, which has so much of drawbacks and is very antagonistic. Although a few members of MS, have expressed their complete satisfaction about the ICICI Bank, my opinion is that, they might probably not come across a situation where they would have really needed some problem to be sorted out. Otherwise, the opinions on the inefficiency of the Bank expressed by a number of MS members are absolutely agreeable to me.

Depending on every individual?s relationship with the Bank, many may differ about the service rendered by ICICI Bank. But I would strongly oppose for a transaction with ICICI Bank, which is only my personal view and I?ve never intended to hurt anyone?s personal opinion.

So, please do offer your valuable comments on the review and kindly do not forget to rate the review??.!!!!!!!

Thanx for ur valuable time.

Mrs. Jayalakshmi Shyam