[null]

Yes bank with zero avg balance option (they wont offer it openly, you have to ask for it) is the best option. You will get your 6/7% interest (<1L/>1L), Netbanking & an ATM card (not a debit card, where you have to pay annual fees).

This is best if you just want a traditional banking account with a ATM withdrawal & netbanking facility

[Raccoon]

^^^Do you mean they have a zero balance a/c where you get 6% interest? That would be damn cool!

Do you (or anybody else) have personal experience with Yes bank? How is their Netbanking? Thats v important for me, as I don't believe in wasting time going to banks. But as mentioned above, if they don't have VCC, it will again be a half solution. But if its zero balance with 6% int, it would still be worth opening an a/c in.

However, these banks can be tricky. They may give better offers in the begining and then withdraw them later. When I opened IDBI a/c last year, I was told everything would be free, including Debit Cards. This year they suddenly changed the rules and deducted Rs. 200 + tax towards annual charges for 2 debit cards (joint a/c). No intimation was sent to me. Gawd known what next they will start charging.

I opened a ICICI B2 a/c after HDFC pulled the plug on Netsafe, with the intention of getting their VCC, but they opened the a/c reasonably fast, but the eWallet (VCC) is still not functional even after a month and repeated complaints. So currently another useless option for me, sigh!

Anybody here using ICICI B2?

[hellmet]

I currently have accounts with four banks - ICICI, HDFC, Citi and SBI. However, none of them seem to be offering anything like a separate "folder" under savings account.

What I would like to have is the ability to save some cash in a separate "folder" from which I may want to withdraw for a certain purpose. Lets say, I put 10000 for clothes shopping and I decide to not exceed that limit within the current year, it would be incredible to be able to only withdraw from that folder instead of my main account. Worst case, I can login and transfer from this folder to the main account whatever I spent.

Any advise?

[rki2007]

Originally Posted by Raccoon

Right, I'm considering them for the VCC option. But the 1 lac at 6% does not make sense to me at least. Would rather keep that in an FD at higher rate.

Maybe I should get a real CC. Though the CC horror stories on tbhp and elsewhere make me very wary. Then of course real CC is not a substitute for VCC in all cases.

True you can't park huge funds in FD due to taxation of the same . But for a sb a/c you can get a tax deduction up to 10k pa .

[Raccoon]

It's criminal to have to pay tax on such meager interest rates when your savings are fast eroding due to inflation.

[shipnil]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I currently have accounts with four banks - ICICI, HDFC, Citi and SBI. However, none of them seem to be offering anything like a separate "folder" under savings account.

What I would like to have is the ability to save some cash in a separate "folder" from which I may want to withdraw for a certain purpose. Lets say, I put 10000 for clothes shopping and I decide to not exceed that limit within the current year, it would be incredible to be able to only withdraw from that folder instead of my main account. Worst case, I can login and transfer from this folder to the main account whatever I spent.

Any advise?

I don't know whether such a structure exists in any bank but the way other people manage such a thing is by having multiple accounts with the same bank under same customer id. And they also use the sweep facility.

For you, I would recommend to have such a structure with SBI. All its savings accounts are zero balance. So you should open multiple savings accounts with SBI, designate yourself for which purpose you'd use that account. All these accounts will be linked to your customer id only and in turn they should be linked to your debit card. Also, AFAIK, you can open these accounts online if you already are a customer of SBI and have online banking facility. You'll see a feature called open new accounts in onlinesbi.com. The accounts will be opened in the same branch where you already hold your existing account.

[Raccoon]

^^^That is interesting. I didn't know you can open zero bal a/c with SBI... that too online.

Another way to do it is to write a program or maybe program an Excel sheet and do the allocations on it. The total of all your funds being in one account. Maybe more convenient than keeping track of and logging into multiple accounts.

As for my woes with ICICI B2, got the attention of some higher ups and lo! Problem resolved in less than 48 hours! To think that the customer care everywhere (chat/phone/email) were just buying time and quoting technical difficulties and even saying they are working on it and blah! I was a fool to keep waiting.

[Farukh]

I have salary account with ICICI for 6 years now. Today I saw Citi bank representatives in my office and the thought of switching my salary account to Citi crept in. Is it a good idea to switch?

Car loan EMIs are deducted from ICICI. I can keep transferring my car EMI amount to my ICICI account to keep it active. Any advice?

[Raccoon]

In another example of cartelization among bankers, several banks have increased or started imposing charges for transaction alerts through SMS as well as for mobile banking. As usual, private lenders have taken the lead, which soon would be followed by nationalized banks

http://www.moneylife.in/article/bank...ing/33243.html

RBI has deserted us! Every few days they think of levying some new charge or increasing existing ones or changing things like MQB/MMB, etc., etc. Fed up of keeping constant track. Even telecom companies are barred from changing plans for a min. of 6 months. The banks have a free hand at looting us.

Axis seems to be the biggest villain. Highest charges, no notice, and have to visit branch to deactivate alerts!

I promptly opted out of SMS alerts from HDFC.

[alter.e.go]

Can anyone decipher "MBB TRANSACLTIONS BKIDN13197277664TXN" I keep getting quaterly credits in my account from this entity. I am unable to tell who it is, neither can Citibank tell.

[spawnofsatan]

We have a commercial bank account for our company in a well known nationalized bank. As the bank is government owned their working policies are lax and their customer service is non-existent. Everything takes much much longer than needed. Even though our account is nearly 30 years old we don't get service that is good enough.

I would like to move our account to a private bank. Can someone please suggest any private banks which offer excellent and PERSONAL service?

This is for Mumbai.

[amtak]

I personally feel you should be talking to Citibank or HSBC. Otherwise, ICICI. I have never had any good experiences with HDFC with regards to Credit cards, loans, bank accounts etc.

If it's pure business may be SCB should also be considered.

[spawnofsatan]

This is mainly for day to day operations, CC limits for working capital and loans. We have substantial security available for loans. Ideally all banks are more than willing to take my account. I only want a bank which gives me customer service to the ratio of business I am giving them.

[Turbanator]

as long as you don't need to go to Branch , ICICI should be best . Most of things you can do online

[neofromcapone]

HDFC, Kotak have given me excellent service, it helps that my relation manager (RM) was well cultivated by my accounts dept and things got done with ease. As long as you have a good equation with your RM, you should not have any problems.

With new bank Licences being granted, all banks would be looking to secure long term customers.