HDFC Classic Customer

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avi

avi

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Today I stumbled upon HDFC Classic Customer programme. You maintain high amount in Savings A/c or FD and you get premium features like no annual fee on debit/credit cards etc.. I am thinking to keep FD of 5L and then I don't have to worry about Average Quarterly balance and it will be like zero balance account.

Anyone here using it? Hows your experience? Any hidden charges I should be worried about?
 
you should get such accounts if you are having problems in getting a credit card. lots of banks offer (secured) credit cards against an FD. of course, it's hassle free account as you've already given them your money (in the form of FD) :p
 
m-jeri said:
Present. As far as i know its a hassle free account.
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Is annual fee on debit and credit cards actually waived off? and also can it work as zero balance account if I keep FD? And any hidden charges, issues?

gauravH said:
you should get such accounts if you are having problems in getting a credit card. lots of banks offer (secured) credit cards against an FD. of course, it's hassle free account as you've already given them your money (in the form of FD) :p
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I can get a credit card, but reason I am going with this classic is fee waiver and other benefits. I can do non-HDFC atm transactions and non-home branch cash deposits. More importantly I want to enjoy zero balance account. I don't have FD with HDFC yet, however I don't mind keeping with it. By checking at interest rates, they seem competitive enough. Thats why I wanted to know more.
 
gauravH said:
you should get such accounts if you are having problems in getting a credit card. lots of banks offer (secured) credit cards against an FD. of course, it's hassle free account as you've already given them your money (in the form of FD) :p
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Classic customer is not a FD account. Its a normal account. like preferred banking from ICICI.
 
m-jeri said:
Classic customer is not a FD account. Its a normal account. like preferred banking from ICICI.
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ok... i thought it was either loads of money in savings or an FD, as Avi mentioned:

avi said:
Today I stumbled upon HDFC Classic Customer programme. You maintain high amount in Savings A/c or FD and you get premium features like no annual fee on debit/credit cards etc...
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Dont know much about their Classic Customer thing, but have been a preferred customer for quite a few years now. There are benefits. Relationship manager is assigned, no AQB maintenance, no debit card/credit card annual fee, no demat account opening fee, entire family accounts are grouped as preferred customers, cheque/forms pick up and drop facility, there might be more, but these are what I am able to recall as of now. The relationship manager guides you as a financial advisor as well.
 
Slightly OT aspect:

Getting CC when you have a FD with bank is relatively easier. While getting my first CC with State Bank I got CC with normal 15 days with annual limit of just 1.92L - we were told 2L limit but did not specify monthly or yearly and turned out to be yearly. In Axis we had FD of a lakh and got Insta CC with 80K monthly limit, got it activated within 2 days.
 
m-jeri said:
Classic customer is not a FD account. Its a normal account. like preferred banking from ICICI.
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No he is right. Either you keep 5L of FD Or maintain AQB of 1L.

mrmash said:
Dont know much about their Classic Customer thing, but have been a preferred customer for quite a few years now. There are benefits. Relationship manager is assigned, no AQB maintenance, no debit card/credit card annual fee, no demat account opening fee, entire family accounts are grouped as preferred customers, cheque/forms pick up and drop facility, there might be more, but these are what I am able to recall as of now. The relationship manager guides you as a financial advisor as well.
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But preferred banking asks for either 2L AQB or 15L of FDs.

vyral_143 said:
Slightly OT aspect:

Getting CC when you have a FD with bank is relatively easier. While getting my first CC with State Bank I got CC with normal 15 days with annual limit of just 1.92L - we were told 2L limit but did not specify monthly or yearly and turned out to be yearly. In Axis we had FD of a lakh and got Insta CC with 80K monthly limit, got it activated within 2 days.
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Yeah, but you have to pay annual fee for the credit card.
 
The AQB and/or 10L FD is to be maintained for 1 account. Not the rest of the grouped account. For instance we have it in one account and the remaining 5 grouped family accounts work as 0 balance automatically.
 
^yeah, but I only have HDFC and no one in my family want it. They prefer SBI more. So it wouldn't work for me :S
 
I also having a preferred account at HDFC. There is no benefit except no annual fee on ATM cards. But there are drawback also Relationship manager always try to sell me other HDFC products like credit card, insurence/ULIP policies, Dmat a/c etc. I have lost 20k last year on these shitty policies. Plus my relationship manager is such a moron if I try to call him in case of any problem, he always pretend to be smart and say "Sir Apka kaam ho jayega" then he not even bother to look at the issue. I have to call or mail customer support to resolve all my issues every time. Then Branch Manager calls me at last after customer care shorted out of my problem and say arrogantly "Sir you should not report problems to HDFC instead tell me directly. This is not a proper way resolve the problems". Once I ask my RM to open me a locker and he told me to buy an insurance policy first otherwise he cant provide me locker facility then I went to a Govt bank and got a locker in just five minutes.

They just keep an eye on your money and all other facilities and benefits are just on paper so stay beware of these kind of traps. I think SBI is much better for your banking needs. SBI don't need any minimum balance in your a/c. I have also made SBI my primary Bank a/c.
 
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avi said:
Can you give more details about it? what is this scheme called in SBI? and whats the min balance or FD requirement?
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Sorry for confusion. I mean, I have started to use SBI as my primary Banker and HDFC as secondary.
 
Avi, you are not getting your priorities right.

non-HDFC atm transactions and non-home branch cash deposits. - isn't the former a normal feature? Will you really use the latter feature a lot? Else what are the charges?

Annual Charges for Debit/Credit Cards: How much can they be? say Rs.2000?
First check like vyral has, if there are cards in which the annual fees are waived off.

5 LAKH as an FD will get you how much returns? Say for a 1 year deposit, 9%.
Your interest will be Rs.45000 per year, and they'll take 10% = Rs.4500 (for the first year) (10% TDS if interest earned is above Rs.10000)
Second year, only ~Rs.5.4L will be reinvested.

You can instead put it in a liquid fund, get about 8-9% per year, NO TAX until you withdraw this amount.
So say first year you get 9%, for the second year, the entire Rs.5.45L will be compounded without tax taken out.
(Research on 'the power of compounding' for this)

Do an asset allocation first: Cash, Debt(inc. FD), Equity, Gold, Real Estate. (appropriate % in each based on your risk appetite. google up for this)
Then plan your finances.
Unless you really need to have an FD for some purpose, don't go for it.

Don't be fooled by advertised visible benefits, which might turn out to be minor, compared to the larger losses which are not visible at first glance.
 
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I was approached for the same earlier this year.

These are the things I was told -
AMB - 1L / FD - 5L / AMB or group 1L
A different debit card with daily transaction of 50k or 1L limit (I dont remember the limit). Not sure if the annual fee is waived.
Locker at 50% of regular rate
RM for all bank related work & can ask things to be dropped or picked up from home/office
Loans at relatively less interest (He did not get much into this even though I asked him to give me a comparison :))

Only thing I was interested was the locker. They showed me whats available and I was not that happy with the size. I got a much bigger one at a PSU bank (at lot less) where I usually keep tss FDs (yes, I prefer tss FDs :) )

For me - I hardly need anything for which I have to go to the bank. Most of my transactions are NEFT. At max I use the ATM and hardly have major issues with spending 50k+ in a go. One more thing is that the bank is a bit far from my place for locker. The very first meeting they wanted to push other things. And I hate when people try to suggest things without even knowing my present financial standing. I told them that I dont need an advisor.

Had a horrible time when I tried to open a tss FD in HDFC much earlier than this instance. I told them the same and said that I am pretty happy with what I have now and I dont need anything more.
 
And we opened the account to maintain a joint account for the family. We weren't looking for this. We just fell in to the category. Whatever extra they tell, We just nod and say no thank you. and this bank branch is the nearest to our home and always in our way if we go anywhere.
 
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