ICICI - Problems with Direct Debit

chaotic_j

Dear all,

On 01/02/08 I helped my mother apply online for an ICICI Bank HiSave account.

We filled out all of the details correctly, and also the Direct Debit details - I have a print off of all of this which I printed after completion.

The account was approved, we sent off a cheque for £1 to open the account, and also an R85 form as my mother is not a tax payer.

The cheque was received and all of the account details were given to us.

We had transferred a fairly large sum of money from her EGG account, to her Halifax current account.

We then logged onto the newly opened HiSave account and tried to make a transfer. There was problems making the transfer and it wouldn't work. After some phoning up, it suddenly worked and the transfer was scheduled.

Not thinking anything of it, we checked the account this week. It seems the transfer is shown as "outward clearing" on 19/02/08 and "reversal" on 21/02/08.

ICICI did not notify us that the transfer had been reversed, nor did the current account bank (Halifax).

Having contacted ICICI to ask why the transfer was reversed they sent an automated email. I sent the message asking them why again, and we received the same message again which was:

_______________________________________________

"Dear Customer,

We have received your request for transfer of funds.

Please note:

Request to transfer funds more than £10000 received after 11.45 AM on a working day or received on a bank holiday will be executed on the next working day.

Unclear requests or where instruction is not confirmatory, transfer of funds will not be executed.

Request to transfer the funds at a date later than the date of request shall not be accepted.

All requests will be executed subject to availability of Clear funds in your HiSAVE account.

Funds will be transferred to linked account only.

The requests received through account manager will involve some manual intervention and hence may be subject to human errors or delays.

For HISAVE terms and conditions please refer our website www.icicibank.co.uk.

Should you have any queries, please write to us. You can also contact our Customer Service Centre on 0808 131 4151.We will be glad to assist you further.


Regards,
Service Manager

**This is an auto generated response, please do not reply**"

________________________________________________

So then I sent them the message again, and eventually got a reply from a human, which is a very strange response;

________________________________________________

Dear xx. xxxxx,

We had processed your funds transfer request for GBP x on February 19, 2008 .However, we regret to inform that this transaction was later reversed on February 21, 2008 with the reason code, "No Instruction", which indicates that the direct debit set up by us has been cancelled.
This direct debit set up can be cancelled by your current account bank, based on your instructions to them. Also, it is possible that inadvertently you may have requested your current account bank to cancel the direct debit set up by us.
Hence, we were unable to complete the transaction and it was reversed.
We have created a new direct debit with reference number Rxxxxxx so that future transactions will be successful.
We request you to check with your current account bank for any active direct debit on your account and more details in this regard.
For further clarifications, please write to us and we will be glad to assist you.
Sincerely,
xxx xxxxx
ICICI Bank UK PLC
_______________________________________________

I have written back to them stating that we did not request them to cancel the Direct Debit. We did not request our current account bank to cancel the Direct Debit, and we did not inadvertently cancel the Direct Debit ourselves.

The only explanation I can think of is that ICICI did not carry out the Direct Debit instruction in the first place - what do you guys think?

My mother is very upset as she has lost several days interest due to what appears to be negligence by ICICI Bank.

Are they in any way liable for the interest lost as a result of their failure to carry out the Direct Debit instruction?

Apologies for length.. thanks in advance.

YorkshireBoy

chaotic_j wrote: »

The only explanation I can think of is that ICICI did not carry out the Direct Debit instruction in the first place - what do you guys think?

Either that, or you didn't allow enough time for it to be set up on your Halifax account. It's generally best to allow 10-14 days, but in any case you should check that it's properly set up with your bank first before actioning a DD pull.

My mother is very upset as she has lost several days interest due to what appears to be negligence by ICICI Bank.

She was always going to lose more interest than she needed to with the way that you've done it.

In future, because the first DD pull can take around 8 days (see the T&C's), you're better off making it for £1 only. Because subsequent DD pulls take much less time (the usual 3 days, ie action Monday, arrive Wednesday), you should transfer larger amounts only once you've proved the conduit.

As to responsibility, I wouldn't think ICICI will compensate you for what might be your own error. Wait for their response to your official complaint...you have made an official complaint?

macgyver

I agree. The T&Cs do mention that te first transfer will take 8-14 WORKING days n the subsequent transfers will take 3-4 working days.

chaotic_j

Just to make an update to this.

My mother had to call ICICIBank on two more seperate occasions, each call lasted about 1 hour.

They have admitted that they made an error with the original direct debit instruction, and have emailed us to say that if we make the original transfer again, they will credit the account with the backdated interest from when the money should have originally been in the HiSave account.

dreamypuma

chaotic_j wrote: »

Just to make an update to this.

My mother had to call ICICIBank on two more seperate occasions, each call lasted about 1 hour.

They have admitted that they made an error with the original direct debit instruction, and have emailed us to say that if we make the original transfer again, they will credit the account with the backdated interest from when the money should have originally been in the HiSave account.

Strangely enough I actually recongise ICICI's response to you. I was sent the same email when my deposit failed. The only difference being that I have been an account holder for nearly two years. I've also sent and recieved money to this account regularly.

I also bank with the Halifax, and I know that I did not cancel the direct debit myself.