Recently we (me and my wife) had two bad experiences with online money transfer from ICICI Bank website.

Case 1: I transferred money to my credit card using Account-to-card Visa Money Transfer facility. I did this one day before the due date for paying my credit card bill. This was on May 2, 2009. The money got debited instantly and the transaction was successful.

However, today is May 11, 2009 and the money has not yet been credited to my card account. And because of this, they have charged me late payment fees of Rs. 750 plus service tax! Now, who is responsible for this????

I have used this facility a couple of times in the past too, so I know for sure that there is no problem with the payee registration details. And for this reason, I did not even bother to check whether the payment was credited.

Now, one of either ICICI Bank or HSBC is responsible for this, and I’m quite confident it’s the former. I will update this review once I have confirmation. And I have decided not to pay the late payment charges.

Case 2: My wife recharged her Airtel prepaid mobile number from the ICICI Bank website. The amount was debited but her number never received the recharge. So she tried again, and again the same thing happened! Even she has used this facility once earlier, and that time it worked.

My wife had a torrid time trying to get to customer care, as the numbers are always heavily loaded. Anyway, finally she got through to them and lodged a complaint. After following up a couple of times, the money was credited back.

(Extra) Case 3: Another example that I thought I’ll add. This shows the recent careless attitude that has crept into their employees. Last month, I went to the Koramangala branch to upgrade my ICICI plain savings account to Gold Privilege (because anyways I maintain that much balance). After making me wait for 10 minutes, the guy says "sorry sir, the form is not available!" Well, well. I said no problem, note down my number and call me once it’s available. And as you may have guessed, I never got any call from him later. In fact, seeing his face at that time itself I was sure he wasn’t gonna call. He had that "who cares" attitude. Finally, I found out the account upgradation link in my netbanking account and upgraded from there.

Conclusion: Two cases of transactions not being processed properly at roughly the same time! This leads me to believe that there is some larger issue going on at ICICI Bank! I am beginning to lose confidence in this bank. I think I have to move my FDs and other investments to other banks.

UPDATE: May 13, 2009

Yes!! As I was sure, the problem was at ICICI Bank’s end. After I raised a ticket, they conveniently refunded the money, 11 days after I transferred it! What were they doing all these days? Why did they return the transaction amount only after I raised a case? And most importantly, who is responsible for the late payment charges that HSBC has placed on me??? At least if the transaction had been declared a failure immediately, I could have tried again. I don’t understand where the money was floating all these days!

I have written another email to ICICI folks today and asked them this question. Let’s see what they say (though of course I know what it’s gonna be).

Hello

You have refunded the Visa money transfer I did to my credit card on 2nd May today (after 11 days). However, because this amount was not credited, they have charged me late payment fees. Now, who is responsible for this??

At least you could have refunded it earlier, so I could have retried. Why did it take so many days, and that too only after my intervention, for the money to be refunded?

Regards

Vijay

From: ICI.CUSTOMER MANAGER
Sent: 12/05/2009 3:18:38 PM
To: 88100xxxx.88100xxxx
Subject: RE:’ICICICARE=034-xxx-xxx’ Card-tc-card Visa money transfer payment not yet cred
Dear Mr.Padiyar,

We are checking with the department concerned and will update the status at the earliest.

Sincerely,

Vamsi Priya
b2 Customer Care
ICICI Bank Limited

UPDATE: May 15, 2009

Got a reply from them today.

From: ICI.CUSTOMER MANAGER
Sent: 15/05/2009 6:33:47 PM
To: 881005761.881005761
Subject: RE:’ICICICARE=034-095-901’ Card-tc-card Visa money transfer payment not yet cred
Dear Mr. Padiyar,

Please provide us the statement where the late payment charges are levied.

Please send the statement as an attachment from your personal mail ID to customer.care@icicibank.com in .doc or .html format.

Sincerely,

Uma
b2 Customer Care
ICICI Bank Limited

Based on this, I have emailed customer.care@icicibank.com with the statement. Let’s see now.

How long have you been with this Bank?

Less than 5 years