ICICI Bank froze my account. Need suggestions.

P

pauldmps

Skilled
ICICI bank froze my Basic Savings Account (zero balance) that I opened with valid KYC documents.
They claim they have done this as my total transactions exceeded 50k in last year, which is true. But as per RBI guidelines, any Basic savings account opened with KYC are not subject to any transaction limits - even ICICI's own website suggests that. http://www.icicibank.com/Personal-Banking/account-deposit/basic-savings/documentation.page?#toptitle

I use this account to keep the remainder of my salary on the last day of every month as savings.
I have two options now:

1. Fight it out with complaints to the bank and RBI (if required).
2. Just get my money out and close the account out of this $hitty bank.
 
The link you shared, clearly states the conditions under which, a basic, no-frills account can be frozen... And you crossed those limits. ICICI is right here.

I think, a basic account with zero balance and 50K limit comes under PMJDY, which is not meant for people with high incomes. You cannot restrict yourself to limited transactions and low balance when you are earning lots of money every month.

You can stay with ICICI but upgrade your account to the one which requires some minimum account balance (MAB) instead of just zero. If ICICI's MAB is too high for you, shift to a sarkari bank.
 
Shift to SBI buddy. It has online as well mobile banking and I never faced any issue with it until now. Specially there are no limits for savings account of SBI.
 
Criminal said:
The link you shared, clearly states the conditions under which, a basic, no-frills account can be frozen... And you crossed those limits. ICICI is right here.

I think, a basic account with zero balance and 50K limit comes under PMJDY, which is not meant for people with high incomes. You cannot restrict yourself to limited transactions and low balance when you are earning lots of money every month.

You can stay with ICICI but upgrade your account to the one which requires some minimum account balance (MAB) instead of just zero. If ICICI's MAB is too high for you, shift to a sarkari bank.
Click to expand...
The text in the page could be misleading the way they have written it. Check point B and not A & C.
Untitled.png

I have a zero balance salary account in Standard Chartered but I just like the flexibility of having another account for savings.

bssunilreddy said:
Shift to SBI buddy. It has online as well mobile banking and I never faced any issue with it until now. Specially there are no limits for savings account of SBI.
Click to expand...
I do have a SBI account. For every single thing, I need to visit the home branch like getting ATM PIN (my card is damaged and needs replacement) and changing mobile number. I have stopped using SBI altogether.
 
pauldmps said:
The text in the page could be misleading the way they have written it. Check point B and not A & C.
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What you've highlighted is a basic requirement for all the account types... not specific to your zero balance basic account.

But if you have lots of money, they won't bother you for KYC ;-)

Anyways, what do you think of the following text at the bottom of that page? Yours is a PMDJY account and there's no way you can bypass these conditions, even with proper KYC docs in place:

basic.PNG

pauldmps said:
I have a zero balance salary account in Standard Chartered but I just like the flexibility of having another account for savings.
Click to expand...
That's a totally different thing. Your ICICI zero balance account is meant to support people with extremely low income... for the people who cannot maintain even 1K in MAB. If you need more transactions or you want to park more money, you'll have to upgrade your account.
pauldmps said:
I have stopped using SBI altogether.
Click to expand...
Good riddance!
 
pauldmps said:
I have stopped using SBI altogether.
Click to expand...
OT, I'm also thinking in similar line... for everything visiting branch is pain... Even for mobile number update, one has to visit branch and wait in the queue :( IRATA is just crap, not working, even call center method also not working. Is any other psu banks which provides similar functionality like ICICI or even like SBI, but everything should be controlled from netbanking? Having account in BOB, even thats pain :(
 
Criminal said:
What you've highlighted is a basic requirement for all the account types... not specific to your zero balance basic account.

But if you have lots of money, they won't bother you for KYC ;-)

Anyways, what do you think of the following text at the bottom of that page? Yours is a PMDJY account and there's no way you can bypass these conditions, even with proper KYC docs in place:

View attachment 63801

That's a totally different thing. Your ICICI zero balance account is meant to support people with extremely low income... for the people who cannot maintain even 1K in MAB. If you need more transactions or you want to park more money, you'll have to upgrade your account.

Good riddance!
Click to expand...

The pic you posted is of Small Deposit Account (Option C). Both are different. There is a cap on Small Deposit Accounts opened using only self-attested photographs but not for complete KYC.
Even RBI guidelines suggest the same. BTW, this account was opened before PMJDY came into force.
 
pauldmps said:
BTW, this account was opened before PMJDY came into force.
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then you should really clarify the things with ICICI. all the private banks closed new registrations for their no-frills basic accounts after the introduction of PMJDY. and now all the basic accounts are actually PMJDY accounts. functionality of older accounts should remain the same - which should be in your case as well.
 
^ Either that, or your account is moved to the PMJDY category since your earlier account type no longer exists, in which case you are subject to PMJDY restrictions. Either way, clarity on this topic, ICICI can only give.
 
^^ This. Banks have been migrating away the no frills zero balance accounts to other types. They either make it a PMJDY account or upgrade it to a tier that requires some minimum balance.
 
^^ Here's how SBI Net banking and Phone banking typically works. You need some thing, you can request on online using net banking and they will ask you call a support number where a support executive will explain in detail that you should bloody go to your SBI branch to get your damn shit done.

A colleague has an SBI account with a different contract number than the rest and so wanting to sych it with the rest raised a request for number change. He was informed it would be completed in 2 working days, but 2 days later, all his SBI accounts were locked out without any intimation and they would not even appear on his net banking page. He raised a support request and they informed him to contact support number to get prompt assistance. He called the number and they informed him to go to his bank branch which is in another town. The branch would tell him to get assistance via net banking or over phone.

If you want a good online/phone banking experience, excuse SBI and get something that works properly.
 
I have decided that I will close this account and just store my savings in my salary account itself.

And yes, SBI sucks especially if you are not in your hometown.
 
I use a ICICI Gold Privilege Savings account myself. I went for it since I invest in FD's. If I put 2.5 Lac in FD's, I don't need to maintain any balance in the savings account and I get the benefits of a privilege account. In addition to the regular stuff common with such products, if you ever need to go to the bank for any work (which is obviously rare), you can skip the lines and get your work done quickly.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
I use a ICICI Gold Privilege Savings account myself. I went for it since I invest in FD's. If I put 2.5 Lac in FD's, I don't need to maintain any balance in the savings account and I get the benefits of a privilege account. In addition to the regular stuff common with such products, if you ever need to go to the bank for any work (which is obviously rare), you can skip the lines and get your work done quickly.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't citibank provide better service for your needs?Maintain 2.5 lakhs in NRV , No minimum balance in savings and you get much better overall service.
 
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