ICICI problems

DNC70

Hello,

This is a bit of a warning about ICICI and a request for help from anyone who has suffered a similar problem.

I opened an account with ICICI after reading the article in the MSE e-mail. The £1 deposit went OK and appears in my account on 06/06/07. I transferred £500 in which took ages, appeared on the 28/06/07 then disappeared from my account on 02/07/07. I did not ask for it to be withdrawn so I e-mailed them to ask what happened. To date I have not received a response.

Checking on my current account the £500 debit is not there either, so I am not sure if ICICI ever really had my money or not.

I logged in today aiming to contact them again about this but noticed that there are further transactions on my account (tax charged against the interest added when the £500 was in my account I guess, but I'm not sure) and remarkably my balance is now 96p.

So - invest £1, try to invest a further £500 that fails with no response from ICICI as to why, then a few mysterious transactions later leaves me with a loss of 4p.

Anyone else have anything similar happen?

How would I go about getting them to refund these transactions (I know 4p isn't worth a lot of time over, but there is the principle here, and 4p multiplied by lots of customers could add up for nice profits for them).

Goes without saving I have today opened an account elsewhere and would not recommend them.

Cheers,

David.

Sexy_Sarah

Hi

I have no idea about their savings accounts, but I would NEVER advise anyone to have any dealings with them with their Credit Card. I have never had so much hassle from a company in all my life, just for the sake of 3 months interest free, which I needed quickly and which took 5 months to set up!!!!!

You can't apply online, so I printed off the form, filled it in, included details for my direct debit and for my balance transfer and posted it off on 2nd January. They sent the form back to me, with 1 little bit not filled in that was hidden in the middle of page 3 or 4, then I sent it off again. That was 8th January. I heard nothing so I phoned them on 30th January, and they said it takes a whopping 5 WEEKS to set up a credit card with ICICI. They approved my card on 12th Feb. I phoned on 16th Feb when I received the letter to see if the balance transfer had taken place as it wasn't mentioned in the letter they sent me, and I was asked to call back in 2 weeks to check. I called back on several occassions but no balance transfer seemed to be happening so evenutally on 21st March I lodged an official complaint. Someone would call me back in 3 working days - no one called me back. on 9th May I sent a letter by Special Delivery to their head office in Knightsbridge requesting either mybalance transfer to take place or my account to be closed. The balance transfer took place on 17th May into the ICICI account. 6 working days to do the actual balance transfer from receipt of my letter - so they can do it if they want to.

When the statement came, there was no mention of the direct debit I had set up on the application - I phoned and was told there was no direct debit on the account and I was so fed up with them I sent them a payment via internet banking from my bank account.

My 0% 3 months period that I insisted was applied to the Balance Transfer as it wasn't my fault that the balance transfer hadn't happened originally, is now coming to an end, and I have applied for 2 cards to transfer the balance to and both of those card issuers are having no end of trouble getting the transfer done with ICICI.

I would advise everyone not to touch them with a barge pole. They don't understand English when you call them up, if its not on their script they can't deal with it, its the most frustrating, annoying blood pressure raising company I have ever dealt with. And now, because the other companies can't seem to BT to them, I will be charged interest again, when, if this was all done through any other credit card company, this would all have been settled ages ago and I wouldn't have had any interest charges.

I applied on 2nd January for a 3 month 0% BT and its now 10th August, and I still can't seem to get this sorted out.

I know Martin recommends them, but I honestly think, the hassle is not worth it, and it has cost me more money in charges from January to May and now I will get charged until the BT can happen to get the money away from them.

Its cost me money I can ill afford and stress I really could do without.

My advise is: DON'T TOUCH ICICI CREDIT CARD.

Yours, stressed!!

moon1981

Just to say that I have been with ICICI Bank - have had good experience so far. Can understand what you say about initial problems - as I had them as well. But quickly resolved.

What I would advise is - there is a section on online banking - where you can write to your account manager, this is useful, and it would be wise sending an e-mail here. I usually get a reply the same day - and Ive not had any problems with their English.

Sexy_Sarah

I can honestly say I have never been so frustrated in my life with a bank.

I have just got off the phone to them again and I just want to throw a brick through a wall as I have no idea how I'm going to get my money back into the UK banking system on a 0% BT.

I have now opened up a Tesco Personal Finance Credit Card, 12 months 0% BT, and they refuse to accept, as does everyone else, the ICICI Credit Card number as being a valid UK Credit Card. I said to Tesco that I will close the Credit Card then, as the only point in having it is to do the 0% BT, and the girl I was speaking to offered to phone ICICI for me to try and get the correct number to do the BT. I offered her luck and she came back to me and said she had the guy on the phone and he was going to give me a different number. But when I spoke to him, he didn't have a different number for me, he didn't really seem to understand how BT's work, and he said the number was valid, to which I had to explain to him that it may well be valid as a VIsa card but it isn't recognised by UK Banks as their computers reject it.

We went round and round in circles for 20 minutes and in the end he conceded that he can't help me and that was the end of the call.

I feel that my debt is now stuck in the ICICI bank system and I don't know what I'm going to do if no one will transfer it out at 0% as I cannot afford the be paying interest on it.

Plus, with ICICI they make you pay 5% of the outstanding balance, which, on nearly £5,000 I cannot afford.

They are totally totally useless and I seriously would not advise anyone at all to have any dealings with them at all.

Yours, even more stressed and no idea who to get the money back to the UK banking system.

Sexy_Sarah

With regards to their English - its the same as any call centre that isn't in the UK and whose native language isn't English - if it isn't on their script and you don't comply to whats on their script, then the communication becomes impossible. They are taught to speak English, mostly, by the company that employs them and the English they are taught is what they need to speak their script - I know as I have lots of work experience with Foreign Call Centres...

Totally, totally useless to issue a card that the UK Banking system doesn't recognise.

yours, I can't believe I'm having to sort this all out, on a day off, in beautiful sunshine, when I should be sitting in the sun, finishing Harry Potter.

Sexy_Sarah

And so it continues...

The really helpful lady I've been speaking to at Tesco Personal Finance has gone through to ICICI call centre 3 times now on my behalf and each time she has been told something different by each operator she has spoken to. Even she is now exasperated by them.

I can't see a way around this - if any one can help me and advise me as to how they managed to BT out of ICICI Bank Credit Card, then please let me know.

Thank you.

yours, going to have a cup of tea!

barak

ICICI still does not appear to have signed up to the UK Banking Code -
http://www.bankingcode.org.uk/whosigned_f.htm

DNC70

Sarah,

Your problems sound a lot worse than mine, and sorry I can't offer any advice on the credit card balance transfer. Hope it gets sorted though.

I used the e-mail facility and found the response time very slow. I have now received a reply to my initial message regarding my disappearing £500 - they say the direct debit was refused by my bank and I need to sort it out with them.

Still waiting to here from them as to how my account has 4p less in it that the £1 I initially deposited. Will post back when (if) I get a reply.

David.

lesley1960

I found that the money left my bank account long before it showed cleared on my ICICI account , in fact that reminds me to check today.

However with EGG the money appears in my Egg account days before in leaves my bank

sparkyspice

does anyone have any experience of ICICI savings?

i tried to log on today, couldnt and now cant even email them about it because i dont know my a/c no. I realise I have no paper work from them at all so no record of my account no.
I'm beginning to feel a bit anxious!!
any ideas??

gt94sss2

When you opened your account, they would have emailed you the account details - so you simply need to look it up..

Otherwise, you could call them with your name, address, linked account details etc.

Also, re: linked account - your current account should have a direct debit from ICICI - that probably includes your account number.. which you should be able to get from your bank via online banking.

Regards
Sunil