Team-BHP - Which bank to open an account in?

@ramki067: Kotak Securities have tied up with Citi Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank for fund transfer. So, you can very well open your online trading and demat accounts with Kotak Securities and use your Citi Bank account for fund transfer. I have online trading and demat accounts with Kotak Securities and saving account with Axis Bank and this arrangement is going fine from the past 4 years. The brokerage charged by Kotak Securities is less than ICICI Direct and the former's service is better than the latter. So, you can go ahead with Kotak Securities.

I have SBI saving accounts with Internet banking facility both in Bangalore and Chennai. I found that SBI offers the fastest Real Time Gross Settlement [RTGS] facility [in addition to NEFT] for fund transfer, but Axis Bank provides National Electronic Fund Transfer [NEFT] only and not RTGS. The fund transfers under RTGS are effected within half-hour between Bangalore and Chennai, whereas NEFT takes a day or two! So, SBI overtakes Axis Bank in this matter!

I will be going on a work Visa for 2 years to Australia.
I would like to start an NRI account in India before I go.
Looking at the options that will not deduct taxes and also that is easy to deposit money and withdraw.
My primary account is with HDFC and it looks pretty good.
Is SBI any better?
I am not keen on ICICI as I really do not trust them.

Any other options?

Do tell me the pros and cons - I am a newbie with regards to banks.

I have been using SBI for my NRI Acct - just for the matter of "TRUST" - so far no issues and I am a happy customer. I could see great improvements in SBI's customer relationship management and customer friendly attitude over last couple of years and their servives are on par with any other private banks.If you have SBI in mind, go for it.

I heard that Citi Bank is also good, and as you indicated I would never for for ICICI.

Hi,

I have an CITIBANK NRI account and I didn't had any issues so far. I used it both from Canada and Europe and it was an hassle free service from them.

I opted it because, it's the same bank I use for all other transactions. I would suggest to stick to your regular bank as they normally give much/some privileges to the existing customers. In my case Citibank waived of minimum amount in the NRI account.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Raghu

HSBC is a good option too. We've been using it for long, and the staff are much more professional and helpful than compared to any other banks. They are a bit expensive though, wrt the minimum balances and stuff.
Very very trust worthy, and they go an extra mile to satisfy their customers. Eg- their bank timings in India are 9.00 AM to 3.00 PM, but when im in India, i can't make it to the bank by 3.00, so they keep the bank open till i can make, as long as its a reasonable time, or they come to my place (which is around 35kms from the bank) and get all the work done. I don't think any other bank will do this for you.

Regardless of job changes and change in salary account , i have a strategy to keep one permanent private bank account, one permanent PSU bank account and one demat account. Salary accounts can keep changing as we all know.

So my banks are

Private (savings): ICICI Bank
Demat: ICICIdirec (linked to icicibank savings acc)
PSU: Bank of India

I have been using the banks with which I have had a home loan. Initially it was ICICI then Standard Chartered and now its SBI. But one bank with which I have an account right from my earning days is HDFC. Although I have Citibank account where my salary usually gets credited but thats a zero balance account and I transfer my salary immediately to SBI OD account, helps me save some interest also.
In all I found both pros and cons with the bank I dealt in. Of them SBI is the best.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjothi (Post 1848837)

Is there any charges for getting the Debit card PIN number in case you forget it?

Anyone faced such situation?

Not heard of any bank charging to issue new PIN.

Most Bank websites now allow you to generate instantly online.

Hi,

Can you tell me what's currently the best rewarding Debit card? I found HDFC gold debit card good as they are giving 1% back on all of your purchase + no surcharge on BP petrol pumps.

Sad part is you need to pay 500 Rs annual fee for this card. But I am not paying any thing for my Credit cards ,then why to pay for debit cards?

Please note that I am not only looking for Fuel card but planning to use it on general purpose.

For fuel card I find Citi IOC gold card most rewarding.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by hrishig (Post 1927813)

Sad part is you need to pay 500 Rs annual fee for this card. But I am not paying any thing for my Credit cards ,then why to pay for debit cards?

I have two HDFC gold debit cards and I am paying nothing as fee - since I am a preferred customer.

I am happy with the card usage till now.

I have a couple of gold Debit but i never really look for offers for using them so never really checked. DB gives you a high cash withdrawl limit so thats handy. I have never really heard of a fee for the Debit Gold cards so thats news for me too.

Why do you use debit cards for? I generally use my CC for all purchases and use the debit card just as a regular ATM card.
I remember reading somewhere that CC have more protection against fraud. This is because in case of any fraud transaction on the CC, you can register a complaint and refuse to pay, which forces the bank to investigate properly. In case of debit cards, the money is already gone from your account and banks can take their own sweet time to resolve any issue.