Should you trust ICICI Bank?

Almost exactly a year ago, after countless enquiries from our readers about the mystery bank called ICICI, we took a closer look at who this new entry to the UK savings market was, and why they could offer a rate of 5.4%.

A year later, (and with the rate down to 5.15%), I'm still getting emails from people asking why ICICI don't appear in This is Money's best savings rates tables, when they do appear in other tables and are recommended by other financial commentators.

There are several reasons. The main one is that, despite having a presence in the UK for three years, ICICI Bank still do not comply with the UK Banking Code, which sets minimum standards for customer service. The second reason - related to the first - is that there is a load of anecdotal evidence that customers are still struggling to receive passwords, to have money transfers happen on time and of people generally tearing their hair out trying to get their savings sorted.

In short, despite the good rate and the fact that others recomend ICICI Bank purely on their high rate (which is undoubtedly a 'best buy'), we're not comfortable recommending that our readers put their hard-earned cash somewhere that so many others are frustrated with. Many readers have told us that they've opened an account, only to close it down a month later having lost a month's interest because it's taken so long to get the account organised.

It's important to point out that ICICI Bank is regulated by the FSA, which means most of your cash up to around £32,000 is protected, so you won't lose your money it if the bank hits financial difficulty. You might just lose sleep trying to get your money transferred.

Of course, we can only go on what our readers tell us, so decide for yourself. Here's what our readers have to say, and let us know if you think we're right in not recommending ICICI Bank just the at the moment by posting a comment below.

- Sascha Hutchinson, This is Money 

Useful links

• BOARDS: Join the discussion
• REPORT: Seeing eye to eye with ICICI Bank
• REPORT: ICICI Bank drops rate to 5.15%
• REPORT: A fresh look at ICICI
• TABLES: Best savings rates

Comments

[A Robinson]

I am utterly exasperated with trying to gain access to my own money held in a HiSave account with ICICI bank. After relenting and finally phoning customer services and prior to that countless emails I am still unable to access my own money.

• Yes I have ordered and no doubt been charged for a new pin!
• Yes I have phoned to have my ID re-activated and been charged for the phone call!
• No I still can't log on to my account!

I have no patience left and no desire to continue banking with this organisation, Therefore I’ve ask them to transfer all my funds back to my linked account.
I wait in hope!

[PJA]

I was shocked to find that when I logged in to my account that nothing was there. A box flashed up saying my account had been deactivated. I have spent 24 hours trying to sort this out. After sending messages and telephoning I received a message early this morning to say the account had been restored but I still cant access it. During my correspondence with an ICICI representative yesterday, I was given an incorrect sort code - 5 digits instead of 6 (I was asked to transfer money in to my account before it would be reactivated). I am extremely concerned that I cant see my accounts. Nobody has responded to me today. I feel sick.

[Paul Malcolm]

I have been "missing" £500 since 5th July 2012!!!!
I was told that when i successfully transferred into the account from Nationwide, that the money had been BACS recalled back to Nationwide!!!
Guess what...it wasn`t. I have filled 3 customer complaints by email (phone service is absolutely attrocious).
ICICI won`t answer ANY of my emails now. Even my request for information held under the DATA protection act.

[Adev1]

We had a Fixed account with ICICI and when it matured, and we are having nightmare getting the money back. Despite having a linked account, they keep telling us there is a "technical problem". when you speak to their call centre you get someone in who can't help accept take a service ticket which simply sends you an email saying they will process your request in 5 days!!. You then try again and the same cycle happens again. Apparently there are no Supervisors to talk to and no managers either. To anyone thinking of investing the hard earned cash in this bank, be warned, they maybe covered by FSA compensation, but from my experience it is nightmare of a Bank to deal with. better to take a few less points on the interest and deal with a Proper bank with the right systems in place!

[tmac]

Currently having difficulties with this bank.

Have a joint account with my wife and having difficulties in trying to transfer money from our HiSave savings to a linked account.

They say I need a linked joint current account with a chequebook facility in order to transfer money however we don't have a joint account with a chequebook facility.

Our linked account was cancelled by ICICI bank, don't understand why!!
In the process of trying to set up another linked account and have sent in two online bank statements which had to be duplicate because the bank account we're trying to setup as a linked account provide online bank statements. Been told that they won't accept these bank statements because they're printed so have taken them into the linked account branch and had them stamped and certified by the branch manager. Currently waiting on the outcome if these statements will be acceptable.
At the moment unable to transfer any funds from our HiSave account and after phoning today been told it will now take upto 6 working days from receiving the new bank statements to setup the linked account.

When calling ICICI bank to try and sort the transfer out the staff are friendly but very difficult for them to understand, I suspect that im calling a call centre in India.

Also had number of issues in trying to log into our HiSave accounts at times.

Not happy with this bank, having mega problems trying to transfer my money to another bank and feel that the process they go through for a transfer is stressful and takes time. Not good if you urgently require your funds.

Have been banking for 20 years using investment accounts with numerous banks and building societies and have to say that this bank is the worst I have dealt with and strongly urge anyone thinking about investing with them to stay clear!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fingers crossed the linked account is set up soon.......................................................

[Raj Desai]

I opened an NRI account in Oct 2011 and I was pleasantly surprised at the speed in which the account was opened. All my documents were collected by DHL on a Monday and the account was opened on Wednesday. I have 3 types of accounts savings, fixed deposit and an investment account. I have had no issues with them and recently visited India and have a good contact at my local branch. The best part is I am getting 9.25 percent interest on fixed deposit, so have moved my uk savings abroad. It's also tax free.

[Linda]

I opened a 1 yr fixed bond 11 months ago with ICICI bank. I tried to log on in October as I was seeing my independent financial advisor & needed to know exactly how much I had deposited with this bank. Because I hadn't logged on for 6 months my login was blocked & I had to phone them to sort it out. As maturity is next month I have just tried to log in but I'm being told I have given a wrong ID or password which I know I haven't. Can only say how glad I'll be to withdraw my money from this organization.

[Gaurav]

Its the worst bank I've ever dealt with. Their customer care is rubbish, they take you through a 10 minute security check on phone, only to tell you that their systems are undergoing unscheduled maintenance and I should call them later.

Please be extra cautious and check your monthly bank statements religiously, they sheepishly charge debit card transactions twice, I've spent a great deal of hours getting my money back. They blame Visa for these transaction discrepancies but I have bank accounts with FirstDIrect and Citibank who give visa debit cards as well but I've never faced any issues with them.

Even closing your account could turn into an ordeal when you;re dealing with ICICI, I've been trying to close my account with them and its been a real nightmare. If you want to save yourself hassle of endless frustrating phone calls with their customer care, please avoid using ICICI Bank.

[valerie vaughan]

I have opened 3 different saving accounts with icici over the past 18 months without any problems at all.I have found all transactions to be fast safe and efficient and when having spoken to anyone on the phone they were very helpfull and polite.

[peter mcdermott]

Have been with ICICI UK for past three years, one / two password issues, but that is in my favour, my password is being changed regularly.

[Bob]

Interesting - it's now March 2009 and ICICI has just made a complete pig's ear out of opening an account.

I can't risk moving the money to them. It's one thing sorting out issues at the start - it's another thing having to face the prospect of problems getting the money back out again in the light of this experience!

[Arthur Mugatroyd]

Well it is rather interesting to note that ICICI bank is still in business offering a high rate of interest but that other banks which people preferred in the above comments eg Landsbanki (Icesave accounts) has failed and people cannot get their money out, and ING bank had to have a massive bailout from the government of The Netherlands. Not to mention that supposedly much safer UK banks (assumed to be safer because they were UK based) have also had to be bailed out.

So even if ICICI Bank has had a certain level of poor service, has it not demonstrated that it is has had better financial management compared to Northern Rock, Bradford&Bingley, HBOS, Dexia, Fortis etc etc.

[Bethany Williamson]

I feel uncomfortable dealing with a bank on the other side of the world and have closed my account. he money has been transferred back to the UK; although the rate of interest is slightly less it is more important to me that I can sleep at night.

[nanjit]

I have been a customer of ICICI for about 12 months.
Initial security was not very satisfactory but now has been updated and is very secure with new format where you choose your own password well encripted.

It is operational only through nominated account and secure on withdrawal.

Online access is very good and easy to transfer money in and out and easy to open and close fixed rate accounts.

Like any other banks it gives you protection for 35K. ICICI can be a safe part of your porfolio of saving accounts.

[Stuart Joiner]

I have had a HiSave account with ICICI for over 2 years and have had absolutely no problems with either setting up the accout, paying money in from my linked account or transferring money back from my HiSave account to my linked account. The only minor niggle I have is that although viewing a statement on-line is good, the method of printing a hard copy is from the stone-age i.e. the data has to be exported to an Excel, Text or similar file, formatted and then printed off, this is inconvenient. Also currently the option of having monthly interest automatically transferred out of the HiSave account into the linked account is not available, very inconvenient for those that use interest on savings accounts as part of their monthly disposable income. So overall no major problems, just a few minor niggles.

[Dharam]

Real pain for everyone, I have not heard of anyone who is happy with the services of this bank.

I think its the attitude of the people employed by the bank. They work like administrative beurocrats!!! I think they are not enthusiastic about their work. They just believe in working there to earn bread and butter, rather than actual customer service. However this is my personal view, and no offence to anyone. Some people can be good as well, but this is general opinion!!!

Dear ICICI Bank employees , please pull your sox, and work real time... Dont drop the standard emails, people hate it , and it annoys them more!!!!

Its high time you do some work !!!

[Anshul Mahajan]

I have been chasing them regularly for opening a Hi SAVE account, they are not replying me back with any sort of help. I am just continuingly receiving standard replies. This is really annoying !!! They dont even read your concerns!!

I think, this is a real rubbish bank!!

[Anshul Mahajan]

Hi all,

It is one of the worst customer care service I have ever come across. I have tested them on several occasions, and every time they have frustrated to the maximum. This time the rejected my bank application just because the department name of my company has changed and is different from the application I submitted earlier, even though the mailing address is the same.

There customer care is absolutely rubbish, and is never
willing to resolve any queries. They create additional queries for people. Real pain to deal with them. I am annoyed to the extent that I will never ever recommend this bank to anyone, instead will make sure that anyone who I know does not uses this bank.

[H. Owens]

I think your article should point out one more thing if you are recommending that readers use accounts with lower rates to get "better service".

You should tell people to work out the differrence in interest earned - E.g. 30.000 pound, 0.5% lost interest means the cost of the service is 150 pounds per year.

I have used ICICI for 2 years and have had to phone them to reset a password which went with typical Indian slowness (and polite response to my politeness). Would I pay 150 quid (or anything) extra to get UK-quality-(rude)-service. No thanks.

[K. Rahavan]

ICICI name itself dreadful for me. I have an account with internet banking facility in the indian arm of this bank. I struggled to get passwords. In the past four years my passwords were made redundant atleast 4 times. The reason is if you don't use the internet banking for some specific period the password and Personal Id are made invalid. Then you have to contact over phone (it's global). The persons attending give do not give any positive answer and some vague reply. As a desparate person the next step is to send an e-mail. It gets answered in their own time mostly asking for the identity proof. In normal way it takes at least 20 days to reach the person in charge of these matters thanks to the bureaucratic system of this bank. Don't get relieved after sending the documents required from them. At one instance I had all kinds communication and got the password after 9 months. Beleive me. At the moment my password and ID stands expired. I am fed up. I am not doing anything as I have decided I will not deal with this banka anymore. I will close my accounts when I visit next to India. It is not surprise that their branches at U.K is behaving sameway. I have not experienced any other banks in India and U.K.

[Nikhil]

Hi,
On July 31st, I requested for a balance transfer of Rs. 10,000 from my Standard Charted Credit Card to my ICICI bank credit card no. Today I received a DD of Rs. 10,000 in the favour of SBI Credit Card. This DD is of no use to me as it is in favour of some other bank which the Std Charted Bank will not accept. The payment due date on my Std Charted card is Aug, 5th 2008. So, due to mistake at the ICICI end, I now need to pay the intrest to the Std. Charted bank, plus the processing fee to the ICICI bank. I am using this card for more than a year now & this is the worst service I have received from the bank which is forcing me to discontinue the services of the bank.

[dtt]

Hi,

I sent £60 to India through ICICI money to india service. After a month later I checked my trasaction on ICICI bank website and my money wasn't sent. I phoned ICICI bank 8 times and the customer service and made complaint. I was told that ICICI were unable to trace this money. I sent my bank statement to ICICI bank showing my money was transfered to ICICI bank. However ICICI bank is still not sending my money nor giving my money back. They are complete cheater and no one should trust them at all. They shouldn't be allowed to do the business in the UK. I would advise everyone not to use ICICI bank.

[Rahul Thadani]

I am a ICICIDIRECT customer . Thats the online share trading portal . Trust me guys , whenever there is a turmoil in market , their website goes bust and no orders are processed .

Today is the height , 3rd consecutive day and the beginning of the market their website is down .

Very FRUSTRATING .

[harry]

Never again! never again. completely frustrating experience dealing with icici bank. i have been trying to close my account without success. get out now, if you care about your time and money!

[Laurain]

I have been with ICICI Bank since November 2007. I was nervous about opening an account when I read some unfavourable reports in regard to this bank. However, so far, I have received a good service in terms of setting up the account and receiving email responses to my queries. I will be transferring some monies in the near future for the first time. I will feedback when this transaction is complete with my experience of this particular service.

[Bhise, Pune]

ICICI is really bad with the service. If something does not work, the customer is screwed. They give out debit cards in India which are supposedly insured and hence allowed to be used at vendors without a PIN number. After fraud happened on my father's card, he has been pursuing it for 1.5 years and even after tons of letters to the back to officers of various levels, there is no feedback whatsoever of what happened.
(Comment edited for legal reasons)
Unfortunately in India no real criminal liability is set against such bad practices and hence these kind of banks use muscle to screw the poor customers.

[Shashank Prasad]

I am an Indian living outside India. My ICICI account is in India with Maratha Mandir Branch, Mumbai. Due my inability to operate this account while abroad it became dormant. I tried to get this activated and called up ICICI call centre. My old father went to their branch in Patna too to find out how to get it activated. I was told to submit documents to Maratha m. branch, which I did by post and sent an e-mail too containing scanned documents. however it's almost 6 months but not even a single word from them. I have tried calling again and again and my father visited their Patna branch again, but now we are running in circles, while ICICI bank is enjoying my money rotting in their bank. I would recommend all NRIs [non resident Indians] to be very careful of this branch. Their service is the poorest of all banks I have ever dealt with.

[shashi]

I had bad experience with ICICI, my online line user id and password is not working and when I complain they call centre guy puts me on the speaker phone. Citi bank does customer service effficently even though their service charge is more.

[Soham]

Do not trust ICICI. I called their customer service when the money I have transferred by international wire did not reach the ICICI account, the representative was not able to answer my questions, and reluctant to connect me to his supervisor, finally they promised to call me with a resolution in 24 hours. No one called. I kept calling them two times a day. It is already 17 days and no resolution. When asked to return the money to remitter account they said it is not possible since it is already in processing. I will not deal with bank again.

[Chris Carter]

My wife set up an account for herself at the beginning of the year without any problems. I have recently applied for an account with them and have had nothing but problems insomuch that they require identification, this was duly supplied. Since then I have been repeatedly e-mailed saying documents required, even after sending them two e-mails and two letters saying that I have sent the required docs. I am still getting e-mails asking for the docs. I have now invested elsewhere and written to them to cancel my requst for an account.

[Phil Taylor]

Had Highsave account ever since it came out. No problems with set up, nor with transfers in or out (of several thousand pounds); email request for certificate of interest paid (for tax return) resulted in arrival of certificate in 4 days.

[Sunil Sood]

ICICI have announced that they have now joined the UK Banking Code - effective from the 16 October 2007.

[C Osborn]

i have had an Hi save account for 6 months now and the service from the start has been excellent with no problems whatsoever

[parthasarathy]

One of the worst bank's in India...with a poor service...would the word service fit them?

I applied for a car loan on 27th Aug with a assurance from the agent that I’ll get the loan amount by 31st Aug, on not meeting his promise i asked him to cancel the loan on 2nd of Sept. To my surprise now i get calls and emails asking to pay Rs.3000 with 18% interest for the procedure. The bank say i informed them on the 4th of Sept. Even thought i produced the proofs of my calls made to the agent on 2nd of Sept, the bank insists me on paying this amount.

I was holding banks shares and a personal account, with this sort of a experience I’ve closed all my dealing with this bank and decided never ever to deal with them in anyway in the future.

Suggest you all to judge a bank looking at people and their procedures and not just the name and advertisements.

Thanks.

[Sue]

I have had a HiSave account for 2 years now and have had absolutely no problems whatsoever in transferring money in and out of my account. Any queries have been dealt with efficiently and with the utmost courtesy.

However, I do worry about the level of security for logging into my account and am considering reducing the amount of money held in my account to under the £33,000. Too many eggs in one basket!

[GILL]

I was told I had to have a joint Hi Save a/c with ICICI because my linked a/c was joint. Being a non taxpayer I wasn't very happy being taxed on half my savings. After 2 yrs I decided to ring them and was told the rules had changed. I was given so much incorrect info how to go about changing it over. In the end I had to remove my money so loosing interest, and it took 4mths to close the joint and reopen an individual a/c. To top it all, I then put my savings into their Term Deposit, and the rate increased the next day. Because of the good interest rates, my husband is trying to open an individual Hi Save, but his password has not arrived. apparently the p/w comes from India-England-to customer. I kept asking for explanations why info was incorrect and even for apologies, but nothing. Almost as if they don't want to admit incompetence.

[Paul Bowden]

I have held a high rate savings account with them for over a year and have nothing but praise for the service I have received. Their web interface is uncluttered, responds swiftly and seems logical to me: I have made numerous transfers to and from the account and never had a rpoblem: they have all been effected within the time limit specified. I had to telephone on one occasion and my query was dealt with with the utmost courtesy and perfectly efficiently.

[John]

Attracted by the high rate, I twice tried to open an ICICI account online.

First time, the web interface failed for 48+ hours.

Second time, the basic sign-up worked but they then insisted that I had to have ID and residency proof certified by a solicitor, or similar. Frankly, I have better things to do with my life and U.K. based banks and B.S. have opened accounts, before and since, with no such inconvenience.

Customer services replied promptly, but they did not attempt to address the actual issues I raised - it was 'take it or leave it'. So I left it!

[RONALDO]

I moved a large sum from ingdirect to icici 4 months ago.after some minor teething problems which they were quick to sort out i find the service absolutely spot on,and with a first class interest rate!

[Daniel Gregg]

I recently opened an ICICI savings account. Due to all the problems reported I initially sent a cheque for £10 rather than a larger sum of money. After recieving the password information I logged in to find the name on the account does not match mine and the linked bank account to which a direct debit is setup is a different different bank to mine. ICICI bank have completely messed up the application and there is no way I could trust them with my savings

[roger]

I have recently tried to open an ICICI Bank savings account and am tearing my hair out with frustration. They object to perfectly good forms ( I have submitted 3 lots of security information ) without giving reasons, do not reply to e-mails or letters and send information that has obviously been pre printed to cover any and all eventualities. My advice is do not use them if they cannot handle opening an account satisfactorily how can you expect them to look after your money.

[rashpal s sohal]

ICICI bank is a indian bank. It is raising equity from the market & it is the 2nd largest bank in india after state bank of india.

[Ted]

I opened an account last August and have had faultless service since. The only thing which makes me a little uncomfortable is the security of access. I think there should be another level of protection when logging in. Also there is a log on level which requires only numeric input where alpha-numeric would be more secure. For this reason I think it would be safer to limit the deposit to under £33,000.

[Gazza]

We opened an account 4 months ago as it is one of the highest paying interest accounts around so it was a decision made out of financial needs rather than hearsay.

What can I say about the service - Well I have had no problems at all from setting up the account to making transfers to other nominated accounts so I would urge you to perhaps re review your original article which was written in September 2006 after all.

[jeff]

Both my wife and I have had ICICI HiSave accounts for over a year now and there have been no problems transfering funds either in or out. They offer a great rate AND pass on rate rises quicker than the other banks.

[Mayank Joshi]

Since Feb 28th, 2007 I am trying to get my T5 (Tax receipt) from ICICI Canada. I have called 6 times and wrote 4 times and i hear/read the same excuse that I will get it within few (four) working days. I dont know what constitues 4 working days for ICICI Bank. For me now it is more than 7 working weeks. The worst word in the dictionary to describe poor customer service will feel ashamed if used to describe the customer service of ICICI bank.

I would strongly recomend to stay away from this junk yard from India and dont risk your hard earn money.

[Ramakrishnan]

Please remember all, ICICI Bank will close operation within 6 Month they are not the Profesional

[Ashish]

Hi

Well before your folks get carried away by better interest rates and an ocassional good service you should also check what people think about them in INDIA. Place where ICICI is headquatered

here is a link.

http://www.arjunprabhu.com/blog/archives/2005/04/27/icici-bank-a-bad-experience-for-many/

plenty has been written about these guys in India and mostly its not favorable. I am just another victim. You can read my story at this site as well.

As an ex customer of almost every other service offered by ICICI India my advice is to avoid them

Ashish

[terry secretan]

I opened an icesave account shortly after it became available, transferring from ING after they didn't pass on base rate rises.
I had no problems opening or getting money in or out. They raised their rates immediately when base rate went up. I suspect the delays experienced by some customers were due to the huge amount of business this account rightly generated by offering top rates at a time when many banks were insulting their customers by not passing on rate rises. It's still the best easy access rate and has a long rate guarantee.

[n.j.gorrill]

One more comment: when I log onto ICICI, I give two sets of information (user i.d + password). Other internet-based accounts demand three (user i.d + password + memorable information). Given the dangers of e-fraud, ICICI looks a bit primitive in that respect.