ICICI Applicants feedback required

Stonk

Oh dear. I'm not so optimistic after reading all this!

ICICI recently kindly enacted my request to transfer £3,500 from my linked account to my HiSave account by making two DD requests for that amount, the second of which my bank rejected - for a fee of £35 - because it would have left me well overdrawn.

Obviously I have written to ICICI to demand they refund the £35. I didn't want to go crying to my bank because it's not their fault, and I'm quite satisfied about their actions - provided I can get the charge back from whoever is at fault. But I'm now seeing that it might not be easy to get it from ICICI if they're in the habit of ignoring all communications!

So ... I'll probably go to the bank after all and see if anything can be done under the Direct Debit Guarantee system. I don't know if it can, because the Guarantee is usually stated like "if a DD is wrongly taken, you can have the money back" - but in my case the DD in question was never taken because the bank rejected it first. Anyone have any experiences with taking this route?

innovate

Despite the many negative experiences, I thought I go ahead and try my luck (greed for the 5.4%....!!). Here's what's happened so far:

04/09 (Sun): applied
06/09 (Tue): got email requesting £1 opening payment by cheque
07/09 (Wed): posted my cheque
12/09 (Mo): cheque deposited in account
13/09 (Tue): received my "congratulations" account opened email
21/09 (Wed): received my password in the post (envelope 100% intact)

12 working days from application to account being active isn't too bad, IMO - after reading all the postings here, I had been prepared for things to take much longer.

I tried to log on instantly this morning - - - and got an error message saying I am not registered. Oh 'ere we go!! I thought, now the fun is starting.

Called the 0808 freephone number, a nice Indian lady who spoke excellent English answered pretty promptly. She was very apologetic and activated my account whilst I was on the phone. All's working well, and I have taken a cautious plunge and transferred £1K from a current account. So far so good, I'll just need to keep an eye on the money arriving, but I don't expect this to happen before next Monday.

DesG

I too had a similar experience to innovate (Password arrived this moring).

So it seems they have ironed out many of the wrinkles in the account opening process.

But with all the problems on duplicated DD's, phantom funds, inaction when problems happen, that are listed in this thread, I think I will just leave my £1 sitting there and wait and see. At least my deposit is 100% covered if things go wrong

Cheers, Des.

derrick

3 transfers, all taking 8 days,last one duplicated,no replies to emails or promises of return phone calls, I have just withdrawn all the money in the account and cancelled my DDs have told them I want them to close the account,they will call me back?? I won't hold my breath, these people are a bunch of clowns and I am not trusting my money to them.

DocProc

I had telephoned ICICI Customer Services first, to make sure my wife and I could have a joint Account as well as individual Personal Accounts. I was told "Yes. Of course you can, but the linked account must also be a Joint Current Account."

Following my e-mail yesterday (15:06pm, 20.9.05) to ukdirect@icicibank.com to query why my cheque, sent on 13/9/05 to open the additional Joint HiSAVE account, had been credited to my existing Personal HiSave Account and not used to kick off the Joint Account, I received the following reply

12:24pm, 21.9.05

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your email.

We would like to inform you that one cannot have 2 HiSAVE account. Kindly note that as you already have a HiSAVE account with us, your second application for the same would not be processed.

Regards,

HiSAVE Team,
ICICI Bank UK Ltd.

Obviously, when you experience your cheque banked into the wrong account and this wrongfully done without a word of explanation, you try to fathom out what the possible reasons for this might be, you then compile as much information as possible to help them sort the problem out.

I wrote about a full page of information to them, giving as much detail as possible.

1. They did process my application for the Joint Account.
2. They did tell me to send a cheque "Subject: Next steps for opening your HiSAVE Account":-

Thank you for your application.

We are glad to inform you that, on verifying your application details you meet our account opening requirements.

In order to proceed further with account opening, we will require you to send us a cheque of minimum £1.00 towards your initial deposit.

3. Without any explanation whatsoever, and with a brand new 'New Account Opening Tracking Number', written by me on the cheque on the Payee line as instructed, they ignore their own 'new account opening procedure' and bank the cheque into my existing personal HiSAVE Account.

Funnily enough, I am still somewhat sure in my own mind, that it is possible for me to have two HiSAVE accounts. I think their recent email above is in error.

Has anyone out there actually got both a Personal HiSAVE Account as well as a Joint HiSAVE Account with this bank?

HGLTsuperstar

So as my ICICI story was not of the nightmare of others on this site, did my first linked transfer last Wednesday, so it wasn't expected until tomorrow or Friday, yet arrived in my ICICI this morning, and was at the same time still in my Barclays! So this morning sent the following email via the online account messaging service:
I am a little confused, I arranged for a transfer of £90.98 from my linked account, which is showing correctly in my HiSave. however the money has not left my external linked account, so where did it come from?

Within 8 hours! got the following reply (can they not tell if a name is female or male?)
Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your mail.

I would like to inform you that it will take 1 day more.

Regards,
Service Manager

So we shall see tomorrow? The fast reply is a little comforting but I am still on guard and will report back on what happens in the next day or two

masonic

HGLTsuperstar wrote:

So we shall see tomorrow? The fast reply is a little comforting but I am still on guard and will report back on what happens in the next day or two

In my experience it is normal for your ICICI account to show credit the day before it leaves your linked account. Makes you wonder what a days interest on all that money they don't yet have costs them when totalled up.

BTW, you e-mailed them today? I e-mailed them yesterday with a very simple question and I didn't get a reply :mad: .

Alfie_E

DesG wrote:

So it seems they have ironed out many of the wrinkles in the account opening process.

It seems that ICICI UK think so; they’re advertising HiSAVE on MSN.co.uk. Like you, I’m starting to wonder if the transfer problems have nothing to do with volume, but represent normal ICICI service levels. Of course, it’s very difficult to quantify; once I finally got my account up and running, everything’s worked perfectly. From the problems other posters have highlighted, all I can conclude is that it’s not as good as it should be.

Paul_Herring

More rave press reviews:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=403827&in_page_id=7

ThisIsMoney wrote:

Despite the attractive rate, however, not all customers are happy. Bryan Goldstein and his wife opened an account, transferring £14,350 to take advantage of the high rate of interest in mid-August.

The money took ten days to arrive and the interest, which was supposed to be paid on the first day of the month, did not appear on his statement. Mr Goldstein called the bank and emailed the accounts manager every day for more than a week, but no reply was forthcoming. So he withdrew his money.

As it turns out, the interest was accruing, but it does not appear on ICICI statements until the money has been in an account for a full month. Unfortunately this is not stated in the account's terms and conditions.

[...]

Chatterjee admits that ICICI have some way to go before reaching the standards of customer service that UK bankers expect, and apologised to Mr Goldstein for the lack of response to his emails and phone calls.

HGLTsuperstar

masonic wrote:

In my experience it is normal for your ICICI account to show credit the day before it leaves your linked account. Makes you wonder what a days interest on all that money they don't yet have costs them when totalled up.

BTW, you e-mailed them today? I e-mailed them yesterday with a very simple question and I didn't get a reply :mad: .

Yes, same day reply within 8 hours.
And checked Barclays today and the money has now gone, so will make another transfer for a dif amount today, just got to keep an eye on things and not do another transaction while one still pending etc, as I think they get easily confused!