Reviews of banking services & products thread for August 2022 : Request or post reviews here.

[henry_]

• Which bank do you recommend for savings account or fixed deposits?
• How's your experience with wealth management services?
  For example, you can discuss your experience with Citigold / CitiPriority, Kotak Privy League, DB WealthPro, Axis Burgundy, ICICI Bank Wealth Management etc.
• What bank offers the best forex rates?
• Discuss the quality of the bank's mobile apps and the services they offer.
• How are the lending practices at your bank? Did your home loan / car loan / education loan get approved on time
  
  Were you required to purchase additional products (like insurance) to avail a loan?

You can also ask for a general review of a particular product or services that you have been researching:

Is bank X good? Is it recommended for basic services no-frills accounts?

but please avoid asking for personal advice.

The discussion is meant for consumption by a broader audience.

For advice regarding your personal situation (like My family is pressurising me to take a home loan, what would you suggest?), the bi-weekly advice thread is recommended.

Personal advice queries and comments will be removed to ensure that older threads provide sufficient historical reviews on products and services.

Reviews posted here can be relied upon by newcomers to evaluate customer experience. Please confine the thread only to reviews or requests for reviews of products and services.

Links to previous threads

 

[lewisr]

@henry_ Hello everyone, i hope everyone is doing good.

Just got to know about these sub reddit and all I can say is i am going to get lots of helpful information from here.

Coming straight to the point.

I am M21 and i want to open a savings bank account. I don't want my father to know about this, he has already opened account on my name in SBI, so that's not an option. I don't have any special needs. I don't plan on investing in anything for the next 12 months. Just need a savings bank account for daily/normal/personal use.

Some things that I want
1. Less time required for account opening, getting a passbook, chequebook and debit card.
2. MAB as less as possible
3. Internet/ mobile banking + NEFT/RTGS
4. Hight POS limit atleast >25,000
5. Option of a different address for postal services other than registered residential address.

I am thinking about HDFC bank. Please suggest which type of savings bank account should I choose, its pros and cons. You can suggest some other banks also.

Thank you.

 

[sadmom81087]

@lewisr Go with either Kotak 811 Full KYC account or ICICI Mine account. Both can be opened online and are zero balance accounts. However, Kotak requires you to visit your home branch after account creation or have their employees visit your home for Full KYC, but ICICI Bank doesn't. However, to open an ICICI Mine account, you must submit at least ₹25,000 using UPI as the initial funding. But, the UPI ID must belong to you, which is a major con in my opinion.

 

[lewisr]

@sadmom81087 Okay. Thank you for taking out time to give such detailed information, it's really helpful.

 

[evyjo]

@henry_ Now that Citibank will become Axis, are there any suitable/premium replacement for the same?

 

[kerrygoris]

@evyjo What would happen to e mandates and loan emi mandates in Citibank account ?
Will it be automatically transferred to Axis or should we re initiate the mandates? Any idea ?

 

[resjudicata]

@kerrygoris As far as I know, it would be automatic.

 

[binhhb8b]

@evyjo Is it worth staying in the Citi card or switch to something else? I don't see any card with better service. Should I ask an upgrade to Magnus from my PremierMiles? Or switch to Regalia or SCU.

 

[growingrace]

@binhhb8b can you explain, what you mean by staying on citi card? As they are moving out, would the citi cards still work with the same benefits when the transition to Axis is complete?

 

[binhhb8b]

@growingrace We will have the same benefits upto one year. Then it would depend on Axis bank on what they will offer.

 

[hedvig]

@henry_ Does HDFC charge you at some point of time for being in Preferred banking? And is it worth becoming a member?

 

[whittney1234]

@hedvig At worst - you are downgraded to a lower tier if you don't maintain the MAB. Of course, the lower tier (below Classic) contains annual fees for debit cards etc. so watch out.

 

[zaplecza]

@henry_ Planning to open HDFC savings account. Should I opt for savings Max account or regular savings account?

In regular savings account would I get a debit card free of cost?
Savings Max account has lifetime free platinum debit card, is that a good deal?

Edit: Also, how long would it take to open an account after filling the form online? Do we get any emails after filling the form?

 

[yuliza]

@zaplecza Go for a regular savings account. The Max account has a minimum balance requirement, but the catch with that is, the bank will not liquidate the FD or even consider the FD amount in MAB calculations.

Basically its an OD account backed by an FDs.

 

[zaplecza]

@yuliza I think you don't get a free debit card with regular savings account?

 

[runestar]

@zaplecza They debited 500+ something for their debit card and didn't even inform me about the same through message.

Only when I went through my bank statement, I found that out. Till then, I used to think that debit card was free.

 

[zaplecza]

@runestar This is actually weird. The debit card for the savings maximiser account is free though. Why not opt for that instead? If 25k Min balance is not a problem.

 

[runestar]

@zaplecza If lock in is not an issue, you can go for it.

I don't like lock in because bank is gonna use my 25000 to make money out of it and if I ever take it out in need, I will pay penalty for using my own money. Basically, I am issuing a loan to myself and someone else's collecting the interests.

 

[zaplecza]

@runestar Apart from the 25k min balance, any idea if there's something else wrong with it?

I'll be using it just to put my savings in it. I use a separate account for expenses.

 

[runestar]

@zaplecza I can't think of any other cons. On the contrary, they might offer a better credit card.

However, if your only purpose is to park money for savings, you can also consider SBI. They will offer better MAB requirements, and much better digital infrastructure than HDFC. Branch experience might not be as good, in case you need that.