Convenience at it’s best ... Review on ICICI Bank

I had always wished to have an account in ICICI in those times when they used to have a minimum balance limit of Rs 15000/-. Some of my friends had the account in so called next generation bank (courtesy of their dad’s fat pockets) and I secretly envied them.

At that time I was a student and even dreaming of such a huge amount of money was sin for me. So I continued my account with god old SBI with minimum balance of 500/- minus all the jazzy things provided by ICICI (ATM, net banking and all those alien stuff).

But as the saying goes “Every D** has its day” so mine also came with the arrival of next millennium (2001) and I metamorphosed into computer software professional from student and ……..

BINGO!! Here comes my ICICI a/c courtesy my employer with zero balance and all that stuff that I had always drooled for……. in lieu of just filling one form (in fact just signing at some places, rest was done by executive himself). We shake hands and I got a fat packet from the agent as a prize for signing the form.

But the heavy packet provided by the agents contained so many weapons that were alien to me. Now I call them ATM Card, net banking password, Phone PIN, ATM PIN and so on………

So what’s the first thing I did??? Logged on to internet and checked my account. First thought that came to mind “It’s really simple and convenient”.

Still I had to check my other weapons provided to me by the ICICI agents, Looked into my arsenal: Next one is Phone PIN, but how to use it, what’s the number of bank’s IVR?? Too many questions???

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Got the bank’s number, another victory, listened to IVR and got my account info. Very satisfied!!

But hey, there are still weapons left, ATM card!!!!!!!!!!!, In the evening I went to that alien looking box with nice color TV installed on it (some people call that ATM) and checked the balance and printed it too (ZERO Rs…..).

Mission completed.………………..

In 6 hours flat I had the account and had learnt all the means to access my account without actually seeing any human face.

So what does this bank offers that other PSU banks weren’t offering……………..Convenience!!

Now let’s see what ICICI has to offer and what it lacks and rate it’s facilities on the scale of 1 to 10.

Centrally computerized Systems: It started in a period when all other PSU banks were still in the paper era. It came with fully computerized branches connected to CBS. No need to go to home branch only, You can get most of the things done from any branch. Great convenience. Today SBI also has the computerized facility but still not all branches on CBS, even in metros. (Points 8/10)

ATM Card:Eliminated the need of physical visit to branch, and wait with a metal token in hand for the turn (2 hour activity at least at prime time). Even thinking of this give me shivers. Who has the time to kill there? ICICI has good number of ATM’s (second only to SBI) at strategic places, but I have seen that nowadays the queue at ICICI ATM’s has increased; they need to install more ATM’s. (Points 7/10)

Internet banking:This is the most powerful tool that I consider. Site is good and speed is excellent. Believe me I have never used a paper cheque of ICICI and my cheque book is still intact. One can perform almost any activity with ease from the infinity site, be it bill pay, fund transfer or any thing else. Still there is need for some improvement. Like: it has EFT facility (inter bank fund transfer) for only 15 cities, (Points 8/10)

Customer care: Some people say that it sucks; I can agree to this to some extent, as the customer load on ICICI has increased it hasn’t increased the infrastructure proportionally. Still there is a skill to get the required info fast from the CC exec, (Secret is that just consider them humans that are bound by strict regulations, and ask them to escalate your call to higher levels if they can’t solve it) But personally I am very satisfied with customer care because ICICI had given me Gold Privilege status within a year and when ever I call I don’t have to wait in the queue listening to boring IVR, I get connected directly to CC executive if I opt so. And they are more than polite and eager to solve the problem that I have.(Points 7/10).

Mobile banking:Again the IVR services are good and if you know the proper phone banking menu map, you won’t take more than 35-50 seconds(depends on how fast you can punch your card number and PIN) to listen to your account summary and less than 2 minutes to complete any request submission like cheque book request.

Please download the menu map from icici site. It really helps to save time and more importantly phone Bill.

Still menu map can be made more efficient by rearranging the options in better way, like:” to talk with CC exec press 9” should be in starting and not at last”. (Points 8/10)

Branch infrastructure:This is the place where ICICI really lacks, branches are really over crowded. But if one is at ease with above mentioned modern age weapons then visit to branch can be simply avoided. Actually there is hardly anything for which one needs to visit the branch, except for large amount of cash withdrawal (Way above ATM Limit), or some conflict that needs your physical macho presence in front of executives. Any way personally I myself having gold privilege am eligible for breaking the lines legally and getting attended directly. Although till date I have visited branch just twice to collect the scanned copy of some cheques, that too not at the home branch, thanks to centrally computerized Systems. (Points 5/10)

Auto Sweep: This is the facility that most people are unaware of, you can give instructions via net banking so that when ever there is surplus funds in your account they are invested in FD automatically hence giving higher rates of interest. I like this facility very much because this is dynamic, if you withdraw the money via ATM or any other means then appropriate amount of FD is broken automatically. (points 9/10)

I would just like to mention that if you find yourself comfortable with modern age banking using above mentioned tools and can avoid the human face as for as possible then ICICI won’t disappoint you.

For the Home Loan I have seen a lot many negative views for ICICI, but I can’t comment on that as I haven’t availed of it till yet.

Please feel free to litter the comments section .. :)

…..Deepak…..