ICICI Bank UK HiSave account

Camper2

Think I have made up my mind - go for 2 Britannia accounts (one mine other hubby) and then that doubles our withdrawal possibilities to 8. Think this will suit us better than ICICI.

neil324

talexuser wrote: »

It's an account with 1.5%, unlimited withdrawals and 85k guarantee, so a good deal now. Sending money to India is irrelevant if you have no use for the facility. The Britannia 1.5% only has 4 withdrawals a year before significant loss of interest so is less convenient in that respect. Only better deal I know is Nationwide 1.7% if you have been a member for 15 years.

Thanks never heard of that Nationwide 1.7% account. I meet the criteria.

JungleMartin

Anyone else had trouble applying for the ICICI HiSave Remittance account? I tried several times last night using Chrome browser, only each time to be met by a completely blank page (not even an error displayed) and no emails received either. Also tried once using IE browser but with same result.

So I have no idea whether they are processing an application for me or not.

Furthermore, I couldn't find any clear information on how I would get my money out of the account when I wanted to (just a line saying that withdrawal requests are processed in one business day... from which I wonder whether they have to be actioned by a real person rather than automatically). However, I still tried to apply, on the basis that I didn't necessarily have to go ahead and put my money in the account.

The above facts don't exactly give me a warm, comfortable feeling about placing a large amount of savings with them though. Yes, we have the FSCS compensation scheme, but would we want to have to use it, and if we had to, how long would it take?

JungleMartin

I've just seen this...

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?&p=64891292

ToinyB-UK wrote: »

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
I've had a "easy access" Savings Account with ICICI in the UK for a while now - Everything's fine..... Until you want to take your money out.

It seems you can't transfer money to any account that dosen't have a direct debit set up linking it with your HiSave. This is not only bizarre, but completely unnecessary, as no other bank has this ludicrous requirement.

Not only do ICICI take 6 days to tell you this via their Customer "Service" interface, they take another 14 days to set up the direct debit (which has to be printed and sent "snail mail" !!!). That's the best part of a month before you can even initiate a transfer out of your account. (absolutely no problems transferring money in of course, you just do that with the same simple money transfer mechanism they won't let you use to take money out... !!!)

Every other bank of course lets you do a money transfer in a matter of minutes, just by entering the account details into a website screen.

This bank's "Service" is just an embarrassment to the banking profession. WHAT MAKES THEM THINK IT'S ACCEPTABLE TO MAKE A CUSTOMER WAIT NEARLY A MONTH TO COMPLETE A SIMPLE, BASIC MONEY TRANSFER is beyond me!

I don't think I'll bother with ICICI, especially as I've still heard nothing from them.

2010

Just to ad looking for something from 1.41% to 1.5% seems like a whole lot of hassle for nothing with the £85k limit imposed.

heathermac

Awful, awful, awful - that's all I can say. I've just withdrawn all my funds because when I opened the account in 2013 (becuase it was recommended on Martin's Money Tips) the interest rate was 1.7. Within a couple of months I received a letter telling me that the rate was dropping to 1.4. They just lure you in with a good rate and then drop it after a short time.

It's also very difficult to withdraw funds from your account. I set up a linked account, so I could withdraw funds in a hurry if I needed it, only to find when I did try and withdraw funds, that the linked account had been cancelled due to lack of use!! Most of the time people are putting money into a savings account so how dare they say you haven't used it enough and cancel the linked account - unbelieveable. It's now taken me 3 days to withdraw the funds which means I've now lost the car I was trying to buy.

I've now opened a Santander 1,2,3 account which has a 3% interest rate.

Nourse79

Same here : online application for HiSAVE Remittance Savins account @1.50% made on 03.03.14.Direct Debit set up on 13.03.14. Account opened on 14.03.14. Notification email 19.03.14 advising reduction of interest rate down to 1 % on 19.05.14. Don't bother ! Never again !

canary2211

Have spent 5 weeks trying to open an account. They refused to accept a copy of passport signed by the Post Offices signature service (costs £10!) but wanted it signed by my accountant - which I dont have! Finally managed to open it last week. Sent £500 cheque to get thing going in anticipation of sending 30K more. Rate falls from 19 May - BEWARE thier website headline reads 1.5% - you have to go to a different page to spot the reduction from 19 May: that is misleading to say the least!

Will start again and they will not see my 30K. :mad::mad: