Aug 02, 2010 01:17 PM
3317 Views
My wife is a double post graduate in finance and management. She is working as a Sr. Manager in a Public Sector Bank. I run a private business and employ 75 engineers.
We are financially well off and make minimal and responsible use of credit cards. My wife has an ICICI Bank Credit card for over 3 years with an add-on card.
We missed a payment in July because we were on vacation.
Friday 23rd july: card declined.
On calling phone banking we found that our outstanding was 23, 000(credit card limit 85, 000) and bill was generated on 21st July, with payment due date of 8th August. I told my wife we must clear this first thing on Monday.
Note: We have not received the bill(not received even 1 week later at time of writing this review).
Then the fun started.
We started getting incessant phone calls over the weekend starting from Saturday morning 9:30 am.
The ICICI Bank staff were rude and treated us like criminals.
Now, my wife asked them for details and they said that as per policy if we miss 2 payments then they can stop our card and follow up like this for payment.
We asked for dates - we had actually NOT missed 2 payments - the ICICI bank staff were lying.
They called us 6-8 times over Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday morning, my wife deposited Rs. 20, 000 into ICICI bank branch drop box. We also dropped a cheque for HSBC bank credit card in HSBC Bank Branch.
The ICICI bank staff kept calling me every hour through Monday insisting I provide them with cheque number(which I could not since I was driving).
Tuesday: HSBC bank check presented in clearing. ICICI Bank staff still calling every hour. my wife gives them the cheque and bank details.
Wednesday: ICICI Bank staff still calling us frequently, saying payment not done.
We asked them to check internally why cheque is not cleared even though it was deposited on Monday. They insisted it was our problem and we should check with the branch.
Then they told us CHEQUES OF OTHER BANKS FOR CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS TAKE 5 DAYS TO CLEAR
They still kept calling us. We stopped taking their calls.
Friday: ICICI Bank cheque presented for clearing.
So you see - if you deposit cheque from any other bank to your ICICI bank account it will be deposited within 2 days.
But if you deposit to Credit Card account they will take 5-7 DAYS
WHY? So they can charge finance amount on full transactions plus charge you late payment fees.
Even if you deposit cheque well before the due date - ICICI Bank system is designed to extort highest possible charges from you.
