ICICI HiSAVE - Odd experience

MiserlyMartin

My experience of the ICICI account was that it opened fine. But I phoned them up asking about BACS transfers and the guy told me it wasn't possible (I since found out from this site that it IS possible) then in the middle of the call it cut off! Great customer service (I don't think he put down the phone but anythings possible)

And tonight I've been trying to log in to the account but their site is down - 'host not available - please try some other time'. Great. I wonder about this one, something makes me very wary of putting thousands into them.

JasonW_2

Damn Ive just opened an account this morning!! Ahh well looks like I will cancel this application then

J

MelanieC

My tale of woe about ICICI, is similar to that of Anticlaus105. I applied to open the account in November/December last year, was accepted for the account, sent off my cheque for £1 and received a password by post. I have since only been able to access the account once, and the password they sent me (for which I used mnemonics to help remember) no longer works. I telephoned over a week ago and asked them to send me a password through the post again, but have only received an e-mail instructing me to use the login/ID plus the password already given. I can't find the original letter with the password (hidden in one of my "safe" places, probably!), so can't double-check I've memorised correctly. I wanted to invest a big lump sum with them, but am now inclined to leave my money with ING Direct. Incidentally, ING, bless them, have sent me an introduction offer - £10 to me AND to each new customer who opens an account through my intro!!!

JasonW_2

Hmmmmm good old ING! I asked them to send me some of the £10 referral vouchers that were doing the rounds, account open for a year exactly, £8k on deposit with them, and they said "we are not running that scheme anymore and haven't offered it since last year". I asked them to confirm it wasnt being offered, or was it only certain customers? When I told them that was bull!!!! they back-pedalled and said we only send to a selection of customers. So basically they lied to me on the phone, so I told them my respect for them just went out the window and I would be closing my account as soon as I could. She tried to offer me a "financial reward" for calling and asked who I wanted to refer, but I said I would no longer recommend them to anyone I know. Shame as I was really impressed with them as a company! This was the main reason for appying for an ICICI a/c but looks like that is a non-starter or too risky.

J

MiserlyMartin

Jason, I wouldn't write them off just yet. I've logged on today no problem to my account. I've been testing the account out by making small transfers and noting how long they are taking. I've successfully transferred via a request to ICICI to debit my current account and that took 5 working days to hit the ICICI account. The money did not leave the current account until 2 days after the ICICI credit date though so you could say this is better if you have the money in your current account anyway. One might, with a bit of practice and timing, be able to transfer funds without any loss of interest. I have tried using my current account's transfer facility and that took only 3 working days between leaving the current account and hitting ICICI. I am going to make a few more tests next week and see how long it takes to transfer money (withdraw) from ICICI to my current account.

With Cahoot and Derbyshire cutting their rates it look like ICICI is the way to go. I wouldn't put any more than 30k in them though just in case.

MiserlyMartin

MelanieC wrote:

I have since only been able to access the account once, and the password they sent me (for which I used mnemonics to help remember) no longer works. I telephoned over a week ago and asked them /

Your password that you were sent in the post should only work once just to get you into the system. From here on you should have changed it to something you remember. I almost forgot mine as well. This is the problem with the net today - millions of usernames and passwords to remember!