ICICI to pay 7% for savings

cells

nrsql wrote: »

Hmm.
first direct 5 year fixed rate offset mortgage at 5.39%.

This is getting close to being worth taking out a mortgage to put the money in savings accounts.
I'm tempted to take one out in preparation - shouldn't cost anything if you keep it all offset while waiting.
If only I'd gone through with it when I first considered it.

i suggested this to my father when FD where doing 5% fixed for 5 years.

i said there is no downside.

if rates stay the same or go down keep the money in the offset account.

if rates go up then put them into the savings account and pocket the interest rate difference. (and put the savings in mums name so the first 5k interest would be tax free)

not to mention you also have a v.large sum of money which you can access easily and at a good rate

sadly he didnt want to bother with it. probably feels a bit daft now

Cash-Is-King

I just booked my 5yr fixed 5.29% Offset with First Direct and will be paying the minimum amount. Do you think the remaining £280 required for me to pay the capital cost over a 20 yr period would be best put into the ICICI a/c and transferred at the
end of the term?

I have contacted an IFA to get their opinion on how I should invest the £280 p/m - will post their suggestions when I received them.

T'Pau

For information. - From 22nd April.

Paul_Herring

oshoshitzu wrote: »

Please give and example or two of the problems regarding competance and customer service

Interest not being credited.

Interest being incorrectly calculated

Double direct debits taken from linked account.

Withdrawal instructions being disregarded.

Inability of CS staff on the phone to correct problems or give coherent answers.

Problems logging in when the correct details are entered.

nilrem_2

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Interest not being credited.

Interest being incorrectly calculated

Double direct debits taken from linked account.

Withdrawal instructions being disregarded.

Inability of CS staff on the phone to correct problems or give coherent answers.

Problems logging in when the correct details are entered.

Sounds like good enough reasons to avoid ICICI IMHO!

bristolleedsfan

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Interest not being credited.

Interest being incorrectly calculated

Double direct debits taken from linked account.

Withdrawal instructions being disregarded.

Inability of CS staff on the phone to correct problems or give coherent answers.

Problems logging in when the correct details are entered.

:T Extend another thanks to the questioning poster for his/her extremely useful contribution to the thread IMO. :T


:T "Please give and example or two of the problems regarding competance and customer service" :T

Dan29

nilrem wrote: »

Sounds like good enough reasons to avoid ICICI IMHO!

On the other hand:

- Many people with ICICI accounts have had no problems at all;

- Many people have had similar or worse problems with other banks (in my case that would be Alliance and Leicester, Abbey and Halifax).

Paul_Herring

Dan29 wrote: »

On the other hand:

- Many people with ICICI accounts have had no problems at all;

- Many people have had similar or worse problems with other banks (in my case that would be Alliance and Leicester, Abbey and Halifax).

Thing is, ICICI seem to have a disproportionate number of people complaining about them on these boards. And it's generally not restricted to one problem.

earlgrey_3

Dan29 wrote: »

Many people have had similar or worse problems with other banks (in my case that would be Alliance and Leicester, Abbey and Halifax).

Which doesn't seem to amount to a positive reason to use ICICI.

If correct, it is a reason to take into account the likelyhood of problems with all those banks with a reputation for unreliability.

Dan29

earlgrey wrote: »

Which doesn't seem to amount to a positive reason to use ICICI.

I agree but I'd be surprised if any bank hadn't received negative comments on this site.

7% interest will of course be a positive enough reason for many people to move money to ICICI.

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Thing is, ICICI seem to have a disproportionate number of people complaining about them on these boards. And it's generally not restricted to one problem.

I don't know whether it is a disproportionate number, as I don't know how many people have opened accounts with ICICI since they've been operating in the UK, compared with the number of people opening savings accounts with other banks during the same time frame.

Certainly for a while they were top of the best-buy tables and Martin's top recommendation on this site, something which often seems to cause problems for banks which are often surprised at the popularity of accounts paying a market-leading rate (e.g. ING's savings account when it was launched, Barclays' ISA last year and Lloyds' ISA this year).

I think by definition users of MSE are more likely than the general population to open a series of 'best buy' accounts, meaning there will be more comments about them than other accounts, and comments will often be negative due to the fact that people often don't bother to write about positive experiences. An example would be the recent posts regarding problems with Icesave and Kaupthing; I've opened an account with the latter and had no problems, but I don't think I've posted on here about it until now.

Just trying to provide a bit of balance for any new readers; of course each person's experience will differ and it's up to people to make their own decisions.