ICICI problems

DocProc

sparkyspice

Don't forget it's '.co.uk' and not '.com'

oldagetraveller

sparkyspice wrote: »

does anyone have any experience of ICICI savings?

Certainly do, twice, posted my sordid experiences with them more than once on the forum. They are a pile of poo, in my opinion, and I wouldn't even attempt going anywhere near them again, even with a 10 feet long Harpic encrusted pole!!

lesley1960

sparkyspice wrote: »

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??

Their server was down for a few hours today
i had problems logging on , my fault got my password wrong , had to phone them and they were very helpful, a few problems with understanding each other but on the whole i was very impressed with the service they didnt rush and noticed the 2nd transfer i had done appeared very quickly , also made time to read the tc's and found they apply interest from the day received and not from the day cleared so feel happier .

WiccanBex

i've had the same problem today!

on the 4th, i set up a transfer to send £1500 from my linked account to my icici account. since the 9th, it's been showing in "funds to be cleared"... and today, the transfer has been reversed by icici.

i've emailed them to ask why, and will no doubt be told that the bank denied the transfer, but i seriously doubt that's the case - there's plenty of money in my current account.

i need a new savings account now... i'm bored with icici because this is not the first lot of trouble i've had with them - i had a monthly transfer for £100 set up... i cancelled it because my holiday came round (that's what i was saving for) and when i checked my icici account, it said there were no pending transfers... but they still took the money anyway for the next two months until i emailed them and told them to stop!

ridiculous... trying to force me to save money i didn't want to save!

any recommendations for the best account out there?

Moggles_2

I persevered with HiSave for a long time because of its consistently high savings rates.

Unfortunately, transfers from my linked a/c which, according to ICICI, should be made in 3-4 working days, have always taken 8 working days or else don't happen at all!

This is a pity because it's a clean, no-tricks a/c, paying a market-leading interest rate.

Originally Posted by WiccanBex
I need a new savings account now ..... any recommendations for the best account out there?

I like IceSave, minimum balance £250, which pays 6.2% AER before tax and comes with a valuable interest rate guarantee. Like ICICI, this provider has been quick to raise savings rates in response to BoE base rate changes.

Also Bradford & Bingley's E-savings, issue 4 which rose to 6.26% AER on 29 July 2007.

Both are easy access, online accounts with annual and monthly interest options. IME, they're quick to open and straightforward to operate.

lesley1960

How odd , logged on today in the box that appears it says current balance is £250 , worried i click on the view button and it shows that the 2 deposits i have made are there 1 £500 and 2 £250 and that the £500 is cleared .

Shall i assume its just a quirk in their system / methods?

pan8011619

Had the same problem initially. i e mailed them ( i received a quick reply) they told me to contact my normal bank. This i did and they told me ICICI did not set up the direct debit therefore the money always returned to my normal bank.
E mailed them again told them the above and also asked for there sort code so that i could "push" money in by setting up payment through my normal bank. It is all working ok now.
Peter

DNC70

This is ICICI's response to my problem:

"We have not received the fund transfer of GBP500 and we paid the interest for we deducted the same from the your HiSAVE Savings account a/c but we did not pay back the tax which was deducted for the same of amount GBP 0.04 which we credit the same to your account .

We request you to ask the linked account bank to send the funds to your HiSAVE Savings account ."

So, they paid tax on interest they credited to my account on a transfer they didn't receive. I'm not going to pursue this for 4p, I'll consider it a small donation to the treasury and an inexpensive lesson in never trusting MSE recommendations without further investigation, and to never touch ICICI with a bargepole.

stingyscot

How safe is ICICI? I like their interest rate, but the fact that they're not signed up to the Banking Code makes me nervous. Shades of BCCI?

DawnW

There has been a lot of discussion about ICICI. They are FSA regulated, which should mean that your money is safe. However, I personally found them hard to deal with, hopeless call centre, slow at answering emails (and sometimes the answers showed a lack of understanding of what the problem was), website often down, and to cap it all a really patronising attitude (being told to 'be patient' in a reply to an (very polite) email sent 8 days previously, etc). To be honest I closed the account because I got fed up with all of it, didn't need it. I switched to ICESAVE, and although the account was a bit slow getting set up, it has been fine, absolutely no problem at all.

I do think that customer service is not always taken into consideration when making recommendations (sorry Martin!) I notice TalkTalk are still recommended highly because of prices, despite the fact that there are masses of compaints about customer service issues documented in the national press.