Thumbs down all round. Review on ICICI Bank

I sympathise with anyone who has tried to transfer money from overseas to India. It is time consuming, expensive and frankly just not worth it!! I had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with ICICI bank in the process – and I was simply appalled at the lack of customer service. Their way of getting business is by blatantly lying to customers, because once they get hold of your money thats it!!

Due to a personal matter I needed to transfer about £2000 to my Dad in India. It is not a huge amount of money, and I did not expect any hassle at all. I was going to transfer the money through Lloyds TSB who told me that there was a £16 charge for the wire transfer and that the money would be transferred in 3 working days. As they do not have a branch in India, I asked me father to enquire in India whether there would be any charges on receipt of the money there.

He enquired with ICICI, and was told that there was no fee but due to various restrictions on foreign currency, the money would be made available to him in Indian Rupees. As it was a legal issue – he had no choice but to agree. Accordingly I filled out the paperwork and started the transfer process at my end.

The money was routed through Standard Chartered in London to ICICI in India, and arrived a week later. Few days here and there is not bad, but to my father’s surprise he found that ICICI had not only deducted nearly £100 from the transfer under the pretext of various charges they had also exchanged the currency at a very low rate. So basically he got hit on two accounts and the final amount he received was approximately Rs15,000 less than what he expected! When he queried all this – he found that the response was bureaucratic and unhelpful.

One does not expect this sort of an underhand blow with a reputed bank like ICICI. I don’t have a problem with Bank charges – like any other commercial entity they too have to make money. What I am not happy about is the lack of transparency in the working practises. Banking staff tell you one thing and what actually happens is completely different. There is only one word for this in my dictionary – lies! I am sure this happens regularly and unsuspecting customers fall prey to these malpractices. But by bringing all these issues out in the open, I hope ‘the powers that be’ start listening and crack down on Banks like ICICI!