ICICI Bank- Updating your Address and Mobile Numbers

Moving lock, stock & barrel from State to State is no longer a rarity. This undoubtedly poses a lot of hassles - what with the packing moving, change of schools, change of address, paying for utilities, closing bank accounts...

The list is endless.

ICICI  bank claims that banking with them is hassle free for the constantly moving client.

Is it really?

Here are a few problems I faced.

CASE I

1. My son had a young star account with ICICI Trichy - opened when he was 15yrs old.  He was in class X then. When he completed his class XII, we moved to Trivandrum in Kerala. My son joined Amrita School of Engineering Coimbatore.  I updated our change of address online. 
2. In Sep  my son turned 18 and there was a letter from the bank asking him to go to the nearest bank at the earliest with proof of id and age and upgrade his account.
3. Please note that nowhere in the letter was there any mention of a deadline. Since he was in hostel we could not do anything about it immediately. A week or so later, my son called me at work to tell me that he needed cash immediately to pay for purchases he had made  that his debit card had been blocked. I asked him to borrow some money from his classmates and make the payment. Luckily he had an account with Dhanalakshmi bank. I deposited some money that weekend in his Dhanalaxhmi account- I could not get a weekday off as I was working in a school then. He could repay his classmates only during the weekend. Needless to say, it was a very embarassing situation for him!
4. When he came home for his Semester vacation in Dec we went to the ICICI branch in Trivandrum and stated our case. I am sorry to say that nobody there knew what to do.  After 3-4 fruitless visits to the bank, they finally asked us to open a fresh account and take up the issue with the branch at which the account was originally opened.
5. We did go there during his next vacation and the people there did not know what to do either.  They asked us to take up the issue with customer care.  Anyone who has approached customer care with a real problem would know what an absolute nightmare that is! Finally after running from pillar to post for nearly a year, we had to approach a relative working with ICICI bank. He had to go there personally.   Finally they suggested that we close the account and withdraw the cash.
6. SO MUCH FOR HASSLE FREE BANKING!

CASE II

1.  After 3 years in Trivandrum, my husband was transferred to Kurnool in A.P.  As I had updated the mobile numbers and address online before, I did the same once again. The options are there - under the view/change contact details - the picture above.

2.  Notice that you can't view your mobile number so you have no way of knowing whether it has been updated or not. I updated my new mobile number on this page.  After a few days when I went to the funds transfer page to add a payee, I found that the last 4 digits listed were those of my old mobile number!

You don't know that if your mobile number has been updated, you will get an SMS - unless it is mentioned somewhere that you will.

It never occurred to me to view the mobile banking tab.

 Hey, I am trying to change my contact details here!

Now view this - the page that opens under the mobile banking tab.

3.  I just happened to click on mobile banking and got the information above. Why then, the view/change contact information in the first place?

4.  Now, which tab do you think a busy lay person would open when he/she wants to change his mobile number?

The view/change contact details or the mobile banking tab?

5.  Don't ever make the mistake of applying for internet banking and giving the bank your new address at the same time. The password would naturally be sent to your old address as it would probably take about 7 working days to update your address.  And they talk about phising!!! 


Opt for getting the net banking password in person unless you are absolutely sure your address has been updated.

6. Then again, why is there no option in the view/change contact details for a new address? - not that the tab is of much use anyway.

7. One last word of caution, if you are applying for a new debit card, make sure you have sufficient cash with you first - or you'll find yourself at a departmental store counter unable to pay for your purchases and the clerk announcing " the payment was declined, maybe you don't have sufficient cash balance"!!! 


(Worse still, imagine that its finally your turn at the railway ticket counter and your card payment is declined...)

8. I faced this embarassment  just last week.  How was I supposed to know that if I apply for a new card my old one will be disabled while processing? You can always use your checkbook to withdraw cash of course.

9. I assumed -as I am sure that anybody else would - unless told otherwise - that on receiving my new card I would either have to surrender my old card to the bank or destroy it myself - that until then my old card would be valid.

10. On changing PIN -
you can change PIN only after you use the card first.
So don't be baffled if on receiving your new ATM card, you go to the ATM to change you PIN and your PIN change is not successful.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS POST:

• when you receive a letter stating at the earliest, it means immediately.
• It is less of a hassle and saves a lot of time to go directly to the bank with change of contact information.
• If you have to give a change of address and apply for net banking, first go directly to the bank with your new address, wait for about 10 days, go back to the bank to check that your address has been updated (there does not seem to be any way to do it online).  Safer to wait until you get a communication from the bank by post at the new address. 

AND THEY CALL THIS NET BANKING!!!


Does the bank really  believe that people read all the literature they are given when they open an account.
Does all that fine print you can only read with a magnifying lens even contain any information a customer really needs?