Notice that the last response was from katmandute was on 06 Jul 07. But I need to comment here. Forget about the things ICICI promises you free; there are so many other hidden charges that at the end of the year they would have made you pay up enough. I have had a current account and savings accounts with ICICI for over 5 years now and despite filling up the standard forms for internet transaction access at least 5 times, each time in the presence of and with the assistance of the bank executives, I was given only viewer access. They don't care that you may have generated lacs of rupees in incoming funds, they are just too overburdened to treat all customers alike. Since I am away from my home branch (town) most of the time, I can work mainly through internet banking and, as a result, I have been unable to transact with them for 3 years now. I finally closed by saving account as I did not have the time and energy to pay their hidden charges and run after them for the regular missing statements. I haven't even had the time to visit the branch to close my current account. In the meanwhile, due to my inability to operate the account due to their failure to give me transaction access, they suspended my account and stopped sending the monthly physical statements, although the single daily statements continue even though I had cancelled them online! They even send me a consolidated annual statement 2 years in a row (on written request now, although I received them automatically free of charge the first 2 years) that was almost invisible as the ribbon of the printer had not been changed! Also look at their NEFT interbank transfer charges now, which most banks still provide free of charge. Look at their entire schedule of charges and see for yourself! My last visit to my branch, when I visit my branch, will be to close the account.
I have had similar experience with Standard Charterted Bank. They charge a quarterly fee for enumerating the name of the cheque payee in their statements and I never got one payee name spelt correctly. Although all payee names were always written clearly in capitals, they were either not mentioned at all or grossly misspelt. On complaining, I got the response that payee details were not clear. Disgusted, I sent they a request to cancel the standing instruction for payee details enumeration. I have sent them multiple requests to do so in the past 4 years, but nothing was done. The only transactions my statements show in the past 4 years are the quarterly debits for the standing instruction for payee details. This is the state of current accounts and I don't know how they treat customers with savings accounts. And their schedule of charges is also crazy!
Despite initial glitches with my HDFC current account, I have been pleasantly surprised with their professionalism and the easy at which I can get services executed by them. Getting transaction internet banking was a breeze and their charges are reasonable. The same goes for my salary account with SBI. Now with NEFT available by default in many of the public-sector banks, it makes sense to choose one of them like SBI. And SBI has more ATM's than ICICI, so I would recommend SBI highly. You may have a problem opening a current with SBI as they need an introduction from an existing CA holder with the branch, but otherwise, I am impressed with the way they are growing and becoming mor customer-friendly.
Choose for yourself, but if I had to open any new accounts, I would never choose ICICI. And while opening the account, ensure that your branch is internet-enabled and is on the NEFT list, so that you can receive funds in a breeze from other banks.
