ICICI HiSave - no statement

skibabe

I have £30,000 in an ICICI HiSave account and am in the process of applying for a mortgage via a French bank. They require a statement from all my savings accounts showing my name, address, account number and balance...usual statement information, or so I thought.

I tried downloading a statement and it only contains my account number and balance. I phoned them and they say that's all they can do or I can wait till the end of the year and they will send me a statement, end of story. I said I would have to close my account and put my money somewhere else in this case, and they agreed I would. I have emailed their customer services but received no reply so I guess my only option is to close the account.

Is this not a bit mad of them? Does anyone know of anyway of getting this information? Is this a general problem with online savings accounts or just this one? Am now unsure where to move my money to as need to get this statement asap! Any advice would be welcome.

lisyloo

This is definitely no the case with other on-line accounts (although you may have to pay for proper statements).

I neede some statements for my parents account because the pension credit people wanted to see it.
Cahoot charge £5 per statement but will send proper ones through the post.

This will be extremely inconvenient for anyone wanting to claim and means tested benefits (like pension credit for example).

I would make a formal complaint via their official complaints procedure.
Often this yields results.

Please keep us updated as I think this will be a problem for us.

I honestly don't know if they are obliged to provide you with proper statements.

skibabe

I have emailed their UK Customer Relations department which is what they suggest on their website for complaints, I asked for an urgent response and gave my phone number but have not heard anything and that was 2 days ago. I did ask on the phone if I could pay to get a statement and they said no they just don't have the facility to do it!

Bisoy

I would no longer trust them even if they are one of the top paying savings account. I have closed my account and finally my remaining balance have now been credited to my current account.

ING may not have been very competitive but I find them more trustworthy than ICICI and easy to deal with and still hold a very minimal amount.

YorkshireBoy

skibabe wrote:

I tried downloading a statement and it only contains my account number and balance.

If you have a 'welcome to your account' letter that shows your account number and address, and you have a statement that shows your balance and account number, the account number is the common denominator - surely?

Couldn't you simply staple the two documents together and send these to your mortgage company?

skibabe

They don't do anything by post, so you only get a welcome email which doesn't have an address on.

Happy_frank

I applied for an icici account at the end of November 06, within a week I had an email asking me to send a cheque. I sent a cheque for £1 to open the account which was cashed on the 8th December, but recieved no further emails.
I called customer sevices just before christmas and was told my account had been opened and I should have received an email with my acount details, but they will resend it and I should get it within the next few days. Still nothing appeared.

Called again begining of January, after recieving promotional email (so the emails do get through). I was told they would log it as a complaint and the complaints department would be intouch soon.
Received and email a few day later stating the account number on my cheque didn't match the account number I had entered when applying and to send another cheque.
I replied that the first cheque had been cashed over a month ago and the number on my cheque was the correct account number, and I now have no faith in thier ability to take care of my money so please cancel my account opening, and return my money.
This was over a week ago and so far no response.

I glad I only sent £1, after this treatment there is no way I would ever invest £1000's with them. /rantover

anniecave

Have the french bank actually said they need all this information on the statement?

The reason I ask is that I've used online banking statements (without address) for the Student Loans company before, and they've never objected.

OK the SLC isn't the french bank you're applying for, but it's worth asking if they will accept it.

With the increase in online stuff, I wonder whether this sort of thing will change over time. I would hope so!

skibabe

The French bank definitely require all the information, and I have been told by my mortgage broker that they don't really understand online accounts as it's not such a big thing in France...

I have just written a letter to them asking to close the account, it says it takes 7-8 days for them to pay the money into your linked account so have decided to just get on with it and not waste any more time with them. I like the way I have to actually physically write and send them a letter to do this, but they can't do the same for me to prove I have an account!

masonic

skibabe wrote:

I have just written a letter to them asking to close the account, it says it takes 7-8 days for them to pay the money into your linked account so have decided to just get on with it and not waste any more time with them.

So why not withdraw the money now? It would be in your linked account mid-next week.

Also, if you wanted to save the cost of a stamp, you can close the account online through the 'Communication' tab of online banking.

[Deleted User]

masonic wrote:

So why not withdraw the money now? It would be in your linked account mid-next week.

Exactement! That's what I did - withdrew all but £1, and then left them to play about with that and the closing interest. NB Depending on how much is involved, you may need to break the total down into smaller amounts as IIRC there is a limit to what you can process in one transaction.