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Thats true only for depositing cash. For any bank, you would need to visit their branch for depositing cash. Other banks' branches too have the railway tatkal kinda crowd during regular timings :)

Most ICICI bank branches are open from 8:00am to 8:00pm. To avoid the crowd, go early or go during non-peak hours.

Ah ha!!! That is good to know.

I did consider Syndicate bank - but branch locations are not convenient.

Guys, I need to open a bank a/c. I currently have a ICICI bank a/c and am having a few problems with it, so need to switch.

Options are: HDFC/Kotak/Axis/Citi.

The one and only feature that should be there is:

1) VCC (Virtual Credit Card): This is the most important feature I need as I need to make many online payments. As far as I know, all the above bank provide this feature.

So please suggest me a bank among them which is the most hassle free and has a good customer care (something which is totally opposite to that I have experienced with ICICI). I can maintain a minimum balance of 20k easily if that's a requirement.

Go with HDFC - VCC / forex. good customer service. :thumbs up

If I am not wrong Kotak was the 1st Indian bank to come up with VCC and their netbanking is very solid. The debit card has 6 digit password. What I mean is they do put emphasis on safety. And to put icing on the cake - they are now offering 6% savings interest rate. So you could go with it if you don't want to visit the branch often.

Also, before going with any of the provate banks please check their charges regarding other services like - non-maitenance charge, lost card etc as these stuff do matter.

Anyone using HSBC Smart Money Account ? How's the experience, they say credit card is free with this account, Is it pre-approved credit card or what ?

Guys, I guess many of you have RD (recurring deposit) account with SBI. Can someone please guide me to open an RD account and also give some pointers as to which bank is better in terms of interest rates, ease of operation etc etc. I don't have any SBI account and so will it be a difficult proposition to open an account with SBI being a state run bank? Please help.
Also, how easy or difficult to make deposit to RD account. Is net banking available for fund transfer to an RD account? What I understood is that the first amount deposited would be the minimum amount that need to be deposited per month, am I right?

I have had a HSBC account since 1992. I closed it once before & I reopened a new account later. I finally closed again a month back. There are many things HSBC is good at but there are also a lot of things they are bad at. Overall, that account gave me the most headaches of all the accounts I have, so I closed it.

Have they offered/give you credit card with smart money account ?
I heard from many people their service is not upto mark also has very less branches, thanks for you inputs.

HSBC used to be very good, but last few years has seen a decline in their service levels. All they want to do is sell, irrespective of whether its required by the customers. They wanted to sell a ULIP to an old aunt with no dependants. They also have all their operations outsourced to Chennai, so any queries are redirected there, and surprisingly, no replies ever come from there. Had this wierd situation where 2 FD's of the same amount, same maturity, same date, had different interest payments. Clarifications were sought many times, no reply received.

But their profits are rising in India. Apparently todays paper says that the Indian market is their 6th most profitable market. Guess all those sales are paying off.

Have been using HDFC Bank for quite sometime now. Overall, the experience has been quite satisfactory except for their various charges, most of which I have successfully avoided.

However, their recent changes have really pissed me off - they have increased the minimum required balance to 10,000. What is more, now you have to maintain minimum 10k even if you have Fixed deposit accounts of any value! Previously, if you had even a 50k FD, the min. balance requirement was waived off. Normally, my balance is much higher, but I don't want to cough up their exorbitant charges in case it goes low once in a while. Anyway, why keep larger amounts @ a low 4%? Further, they charge for everything - third party transfers (NEFT, RTGS, etc,), Debit card, etc., etc.

Heard good things about IDBI recently, so decided to give them a try. Since I'v been with HDFC for quite long, I would be comparing IDBI with them. Surprisingly (for a PSU), they sent someone home to take care of all a/c opening formalities. After that they sent everything (cheque book, passwords, etc) except passbook at home. But they are generally slower and less efficient than HDFC.

IDBI's Netbanking is not comparable to HDFCs. However, after some initial griping and fuming, you can come to terms with it, I guess.

The cons-

1. They have a seperate transaction password which you have to enter for every single transaction you do. Quite irritating; but try accepting it with the warm fuzzy feeling that its safer.
2. AFAIK, no virtual CC.
3. Cannot break a FD online. Have to visit branch for that! Who has time? This really pissed me off. It is possible with HDFC. They do have sweep in/out though.
4. Not much "refinement", overall.
5. Everything is generally slower than HDFC.
6. Much fewer ATMs than HDFC in Poona. However, you get 5 free transactions/month at other bank's ATMs (which does not help if you need to deposit cheques).

The pros-

1. Everything is FREE, FREE, FREE - No minimum bal requirement, no debit card charges, no NEFT, RTGS charges, No penalty for premature FD withdrawal. Other service charges I'm sure will be much lower than HDFC. Wow!!
2. Toll-free Phone Banking Number (not available with HDFC).
3. Branch open 7 days a week (not available with HDFC).

Comments come after barely couple weeks experience with IDBI. Hope they improve with time... they have a long way to go before they can catch up with HDFC on most fronts. Hope this helps people who are looking for a new bank.

Stay away from HSBC.
My mom has a HSBC account for some 5+ years and apart from a couple of FDs, the account is not used much. Last week, she noticed that they have deducted ~1600 twice as account maintenance charges. On calling up the customer care, she was told that they had upgraded her account and the minimum balance required now 3 lakh. The upgrade happened without any intimation or her consent and the customer care is not willing to revert the charges.

This is a usual trick of HSBC to increase the minimum balance without any intimation and charge you for not maintaining the balance. A few years back they did the same to me and I gave them benefit of doubt on the intimation letter not reaching me.

I have decided not to leave this matter and planning to go to the banking ombudsman for this matter. The charges might be small but I can't stand someone taking me for a ride.

So in a nutshell, don't bank with HSBC if you can.

PS: I was a British Bank customer before it became HSBC and I saw an immediate drop in service and their policies after the change.

Anyone recently opened Joint Account? Which bank is the best? Net banking is must and would be using regularly to pay bill etc
HDFC is minimum 10k balance, I already have 2 Joints but both are zero balance and they are not ready to give me a third one.

SBI has a very nominal minimum balance and has excellent net banking service.

Rohan

If you want personal service then the foreign / private banks are better. On the other hand PSU banks may have far more no charge options, and also give you access to the income tax information / transfer which is denied to foreign banks. However, the service tends to be more iffy, and a lot depends on the manager at a particular time.

I have accounts with both SBI (since 1977) -Salary & ppf, and Standard Chartered (since 1977 when we started with Grindlay's) who have the bulk of our money. The latter offers far better investment service than the former, so we invest through them. With core banking clearance charges are now history. Even before that for many years, Stanchart had a flat Rs.50/- while SBI was x% + this and that.