[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by binand

I opened my Citigold account back in 2003.

At the moment I have more or less ruled out #2. I am actively considering #3 because that RM has been good so far (4-5 years). Too many options for #4 that I can't decide.

I am glad that you almost ruled out #2. I made the mistake of opening an HDFC bank account recently. Will you believe they took more than 10 days to open an savings account? None of the bank employees or customer care have any clue on the process followed in their own bank. Given their lethargy, I am surprised how this bank runs. It is a Sarkari bank under Private clothing.

I am in the same boat as you on the Citi exit but I hold a humble Suvidha Salary account converted into a Citi Priority account (I guess Citigold will get even better service). I have decided for option 1. My wife is having an Axis account for close to 10 years and experience is neutral.

If you are keen on option 4, have a look at ICICI bank. I am using it for the last two years and experience is positive. I am yet to visit the branch as almost all of the things can be done online (which is important for me) but customer care is a little bit of struggle as you need to send few emails to sort things out.

[binand]

Originally Posted by comfortablynumb

Kotak is quite decent[...] They are not in Citi's class, but definitely not as bad as HDFC either (my wife finds a new reason to curse HDFC literally every month).

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

If you are keen on option 4, have a look at ICICI bank[...] customer care is a little bit of struggle as you need to send few emails to sort things out.

None of options 1-3 seem to work out, so I'm on the lookout for a bank in option 4. I do need something that is in Citi's class. I want to avoid ICICI because I was a customer of theirs and their terrible customer service eventually drove me to close out everything. I don't want to add one more like HDFC Bank to the mix. In fact I'm closing out of HDFC also slowly.

So which one? HSBC?

[adithya.kp]

I agree, Citi was amazing. Here is my feedback on some of the banks
HSBC: Pathetic. Their portal is still 90's design.
HDFC: Pathetic
SBI: Poor
Canara: Poor
ICICI: Very good.
Axis: Good. (Wife account)
Indusind: Decent (Wife account), but better to go with ICICI/Axis/Kotak if one is looking at private banks.
If I were to pick only one bank, that would be ICICI. They are the pioneer in technology adoption. User interface is neat, although not great. ( I am not associated with ICICI bank)
I am actually looking at consolidating our PSU accounts to one PSU account. I have shortlisted bank of baroda. At least, the home page interface looks neat. Any feedback on bank of baroda?

[rana_kirti]

I'm required to open a 2nd bank a/c.

which bank card right now gets the best options for discounts while online shopping/payments etc. (something similar to icici amazon pay card which i use on my icici a/c to get nice benefits)

Thanks.

[rajivr1612]

Hi all,
I have savings account in SBI and ICICI, the latter being a salary account.
Now, I want to open a savings account for my 11yo son. He wants to park his pocket money and cash received from grand parents in this account.
Which bank would be a better option? My requirements are zero balance and provision of debit card.
Thanks.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

Hi all,
I have savings account in SBI and ICICI, the latter being a salary account.
Now, I want to open a savings account for my 11yo son. He wants to park his pocket money and cash received from grand parents in this account.
Which bank would be a better option? My requirements are zero balance and provision of debit card.

Huh? When did I pay this?

Oops. This is not my post!! Save here. Opened in SBI. Because I can link multiple user IDs to save mobile number. Can't do this in Canara, did not try with ICICI.

[AltoLXI]

Originally Posted by adithya.kp

I have shortlisted bank of baroda. At least, the home page interface looks neat. Any feedback on bank of baroda?

I do not like the BoB user interface a bit. Very clumsy and unintutive.

1. Opens new tab once logged in.
2. Account statement link is hidden under obscure button.
3. Instead of plainly having a text to logout, an arrow is used.
4. The icing on cake is telling the users that it wants to change UI based on user device screen

Like ICICI bank UI of the lot. Axis bank UI was bad earlier but has been made easier off late.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

Hi all,
I have savings account in SBI and ICICI, the latter being a salary account.
Now, I want to open a savings account for my 11yo son. He wants to park his pocket money and cash received from grand parents in this account.
Which bank would be a better option? My requirements are zero balance and provision of debit card.
Thanks.

ICICI has couple of options like Young star account. It will be minor account with you as guardian and your PAN linked. Any interest accrued will be treated under your PAN. They provide debit card also with small limit but has some small minimum balance requirement. Since you have salary account they may waive it. You can view the account in your Netbanking login itself.

HDFC Bank too has options and have some spend based offers too for minor account debit card but the minimum balance is high. Not worth in my opinion.

SBI asked me to visit the branch and fill a big form so I didn't opted for it.

ICICI Bank will be my recommendation!!!

[binand]

Originally Posted by rajivr1612

I want to open a savings account for my 11yo son.
Which bank would be a better option? My requirements are zero balance and provision of debit card.

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

HDFC Bank too has options and have some spend based offers too for minor account debit card but the minimum balance is high.

HDFC's product is called Kids Advantage account. I had opened it for each of my children. The rules are:

AQB etc, the guardian's rules apply to the child too. Since I have an Imperia account it was all 0.

While there is no minimum age threshold for the child, they issue debit cards only after a certain age is crossed (11 I think). Shouldn't be a problem for you.

They setup by default a sweep-out system from the account (I think 25k).

Now the downside is that nobody in HDFC (that I interacted with) has a clue what should happen after the child turns 18.

That sweep-out could be a pain too. Suppose you close those FDs. The balance will be credited to the same account and the sweep-out will kick in again.

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by binand

Now the downside is that nobody in HDFC (that I interacted with) has a clue what should happen after the child turns 18.

Once the child becomes a major, you will need to convert the account to a regular savings account, delete your name from the account as guardian and change the mode of operation to self (by your child).

[binand]

Originally Posted by Fx14

Once the child becomes a major, you will need to convert the account to a regular savings account...

Of course. What I meant was that the bank staff I interacted with had no clue what would happen / needs to happen once the child turns 18. In terms of stuff that are programmed into their IT systems, stuff that are regulatory requirements etc. Like Aadhaar seeding, PAN linkage, the aforementioned sweep-out etc.

[dragracer567]

Just a quick review of my banking experience as an NRI who changes countries every 2-3 years.

1) HDFC bank - I originally had a resident savings account at HDFC which I wanted to change to an NRE account. This however easier said than done as when I first tried this in 2017, they asked for lots of documents which I sent by DHL (at a significant cost) but then they came back to me saying more documents were needed, so I abandoned this pursuit. I tried again this month when it was much easier as they only required my passport copy to be either notarized or attested by the Indian embassy while they picked up the documents using their own courier. I was however made to close my resident savings account manually by visiting India (since resident account can only be converted to NRO not NRE), which was done by visiting a HDFC branch during my last India trip.

2) SBI - SBI was generally fine and they have local numbers in most countries for customer care, so you won't rake up huge ISD charges. However, the problem arose when I changed country and they required me to send my documents (notarized/attested in embassy) to an address in India. Haven't done this yet and the account is dormant now.

3) Kotak Mahindra - Similar to HDFC, they offered to pick up all the documents through their own courier, but they require more documents including address proof that need to be attested by embassy/notarized (HDFC only required passport copy to be attested). Haven't done this yet but plan to do this next month.

4) South Indian Bank - This is a local bank and because of that, they are quite flexible - opening accounts was easy and changing countries was also really easy. Moreover, because its a small bank, the bank manager sorts out most of the issues personally without needing to contact customer care (which is a boon when you are living abroad). So, I use this as my primary back-up account.

My rankings for easy of access would be:

South Indian Bank > Kotak Mahindra > HDFC > SBI

Customer care rankings:

Kotak Mahindra > SBI > HDFC (never used South Indian Bank customer care)

Documentation requirements (increasing order in requirements):

South Indian Bank < HDFC < Kotak Mahindra < SBI

Peace of mind:

Kotak Mahindra > SBI > HDFC > South Indian bank

Netbanking:

SBI > South Indian bank > HDFC (haven't opened Kotak Mahindra account yet)

Sarkaari mentality (increasing order):

South Indian Bank < Kotak Mahindra < SBI < HDFC

Indeed, I found HDFC to be the most inflexible, even compared to SBI strangely but decided to stick with them due to better documentation requirements, their size (too big to fail), reputation and availability of courier pick up.

[theexpert]

Hi folks,

I have a savings account in SBI and in general, my experience is good with SBI (given the manager knows us personally and most of the time, I can get things done by calling him). I recently updated my account to SBI wealth and since then the experience has improved even further.

I want to open a second savings account and considering ICICI and HDFC so far. What I am looking for is good net banking experience and good credit card rewards. It seems HDFC has the most rewards, but I might be wrong. Between the 2, which one is recommended?

I am leaning towards ICICI given the branch is within walking distance from my home.

[binand]

Originally Posted by theexpert

It seems HDFC has the most rewards...

HDFC most certainly has the most number of dysfunctional posterior orifices in the banking industry. Stay away if you can.

[AZT]

IDFC has started an annual debit card charge of 499/- for their Visa signature cards and 199 or 299 for their other debit cards.
https://www.idfcfirstbank.com/notice-board