ICICI pestering me to renew fixed rate bond

wombat42_2

I got an annoying phone call at work yesterday from an indian woman at ICICI trying to persuade me to renew my fixed rate bond with them as the previous 12 month bond had expired. I said i was not sure so she said she would phone back this evening to see if i had decided. But i told her i may not decide for two weeks.

I found it difficult to understand much of what she was saying any way as she had quite a strong indian accent.

I dont really undrstand why ICICI are doing this. I would have just kept the money in my normal HISAVE account anyway so it would probably have cost ICICI more money if it was kept in their fixed rate bond.

When i set up the previous 12 month bond, i had selected that i did not want automatic renewal.

Onawingandaprayer

Guess they'd rather know that your money was going to stick with them in a fixed account rather than getattable.

mr_fishbulb

When the Icelandic banks were falling, lots of people started taking their mony out of ICICI too. I'm guessing (as Onawingandaprayer says) they want this to be less likely to happen in future.

Exo

I had a similar call when my fixed rate came to the end of its year.
I regarded it as courtesy call merely reminding me of the maturity of my fixed rate. I thanked the caller and stated I would renew online if I so wished. They did not bother me again.

Stating you were unsure left it a bit open ended from their point of view. A simple "No" would be more decisive and end of the matter.

Surely a strong Indian accent was not unexpected from someone calling from an Indian bank.

wombat42_2

Exo - I did know that my bond was about to expire. I did specify that i did not want automatic renewal of the bond when I applied for it a year ago. It was entirely my responsibility and would not expect someone to phone up to remind me. After all it is suppposed to be an internet bank and i had already specified my intentions. If ICICI really just wanted to remind me or inform me that the bond had expired they could have just sent me an email.

It is not as if it was a time critical event anyway. I could easily change my mind in few weeks time and start a new bond rather than feel rushed in to making a decision, As Mr Fishbulb said it looks like ICICI are on the defensive and scared that i would take my money out completely.

Obviously it is no surprise that it was an indian employee from ICICI who phoned me but my point still remains that i could not understand every word that was being said and it reinforces my point that the phone call was unnecessary and unwarrented. An email would have been a better idea.

lolly5648

We have a bond in joint names - I received a phone call and said I didnt want to renew as their rate had just dropped. The next day they rang my husband who said the same thing.

I thought that was a bit sneaky.

KingL

There's a thread round here where somebody is upset that they didn't phone him up and ask him whether he wanted to renew one. Whatya gonna do ?!

Out of interest - what rate did they offer on the new one - presumably just their bog-standard current market offering?

Walletwatch

Having banked with their Indian outfit for some years now before I opened the Hi-Save three years back, I can tell you that they are known to be painfully aggressive the way they scout for business retention and acquisition, so you are better off being decisively curt with them and not leaving any room for doubt on your intentions as to what you would do with your money.

Paul_Herring

Don't ICICI have secure messaging for this type of thing?

withnell

I too regarded it as a courtesy call - many people would not realise that the bond was about to mature anyway, and I said I would take a look and renew online if interested - they didn't bother me again.

lolly5648

KingL wrote: »

Out of interest - what rate did they offer on the new one - presumably just their bog-standard current market offering?

They offered 4.65% - the day before it was 5.01%! We put our money in Close at 5%.