Help me Decide a Bank for One Savings and One Current Account.

[fatehbajwa]

I have been banking with HDFC Bank for a while now. One savings account is 24 years old and a Current Account is 5 years old.
I have seen the gradual deterioration of services at my branch. I think it's primarily because HDFC took on many more customers than they were prepared to handle.
There was a time when all my MF's were bought via the same branch....................THE GOOD DAYS.

After repeatedly facing issues with the branch and the RM's (there have been many over 24 years), some minor and some really big one's, I decided that enough is enough and it's time to go somewhere else. The final straw was taking 14 months to remove/add partners in a Current account. yes, you read that right. 14 months after all the required documents had been provided to them.

I had a talk with the Ops. Manager in the branch about this and she put me through to the Imperia RM. This gentleman(NOT) tells me that you are eligible for Imperia Banking for many many years and why haven't I upgraded!! well, no one told me this and offered it to me. Anyway he asked for some papers and some forms had to be filled. Was given a TAT of 4 days. No contact at all for 10 days and when I called him, he mentions that there are some issues. I asked what and how come they are there after he'd seen all the details and then offered the Imperia Banking. Guess what he says....."I don't know!".

I've just been venting above...Apologies, but I had to get this out of my system; and to cut a long story short................I need advise/help in deciding a bank and particular plan/program for a Current & Savings account. We have most of the banks available in my city. The eligibility criteria for HDFC Imperia (which I now thankfully know), is your guide to what kind of funds I am talking about.

Thanks in anticipation.

 

[Souvik]

An Update.
Met the Axis Burgundy guys yesterday.
Meeting IDFC people today.
One by one.

Upgrade to Imperia offer normally shows up in the Offers section of your net banking, but Preferred or Imperia are mostly not much different. So not much to look forward to have an upgrade to Imperia, so you may not have missed out on anything if you missed the upgrade.

I also do agree that HDFC Bank is now biting more than they can chew, so they are also going the SBI way which is downhill. Hence services suffer.

I have been on the same page for sometime and talking about the corpus of funds in Imperia I thought it was better to diversify amongst different banks, so I finally decided to go for IDFC (was also zeroing on Bandhan too), as they had better FD/Savings interest rates, account opening offers, good CC offerings.

No idea on Current accounts anyway.

Do keep us posted as to what you finally chose and why, change management is always difficult and worth sharing the experience.

 

[Parvesh Goyal]

Upgrade to Imperia offer normally shows up in the Offers section of your net banking, but Preferred or Imperia are mostly not much different. So not much to look forward to have an upgrade to Imperia, so you may not have missed out on anything if you missed the upgrade.

I also do agree that HDFC Bank is now biting more than they can chew, so they are also going the SBI way which is downhill. Hence services suffer.

I have been on the same page for sometime and talking about the corpus of funds in Imperia I thought it was better to diversify amongst different banks, so I finally decided to go for IDFC (was also zeroing on Bandhan too), as they had better FD/Savings interest rates, account opening offers, good CC offerings.

No idea on Current accounts anyway.

Do keep us posted as to what you finally chose and why, change management is always difficult and worth sharing the experience.

Correct. There is no much diff in Imperia and Preferred. I think major diff in locker charges which comes free in Imperia. I m also having a few current accounts and savings account as well. My accounts were opened in Imperia. I was not informed regarding the conditions for Imperia by my RM. After one year all of my accounts were changed to normal accounts. When I clarified with RM, then he informed that around 20L AMB has to b maintained for Imperia account. After that I changed to Preferred. I have been offered frequently for upgrade to Imperia but I ignore that. Now till date all of my accounts r in Preferred. Good thing is that I never charged a single penny by HDFC as Preferred accounts. I m with HDFC since 2014.
Update:
Having accounts with Axis Bank as well but every month they r putting charges. Planning to close the accounts in Axis Bank.

 

[Souvik]

Correct. There is no much diff in Imperia and Preferred. I think major diff in locker charges which comes free in Imperia. I m also having a few current accounts and savings account as well. My accounts were opened in Imperia. I was not informed regarding the conditions for Imperia by my RM. After one year all of my accounts were changed to normal accounts. When I clarified with RM, then he informed that around 20L AMB has to b maintained for Imperia account. After that I changed to Preferred. I have been offered frequently for upgrade to Imperia but I ignore that. Now till date all of my accounts r in Preferred. Good thing is that I never charged a single penny by HDFC as Preferred accounts. I m with HDFC since 2014.

True, for namesake Imperia is a privilege account, if the bank really cared about high value accounts it would have given at least 0.25% extra interest on these accounts or other notable benefits.

Its just a way for salesman to segregate and target customers for cross selling bank's products.

 

[sampatir]

I am only suggesting about savings account as I am aware of that, I don't have much idea for current accounts.

If you need a very trustworthy well-known brand then you can go with ICICI, it has the best digital infrastructure also ICICI is at the top when it comes to launching new features.
Considering your imperia elegibility you can go with the wealth management banking.

If you are willing to try out with some new players you can consider IDFC/Indusind Bank as they offer wealth management services too which have a lot benefits and are competing with the well known brands.They too have a decent digital infrastructure but no one can beat ICICI in terms of digital infrastructure tbh.

I agree 100%, icici n idfc

 

[sampatir]

I don't know about IDFC but I'm in for ICICI. Have had good experience with them.

I didnt visit idfc branch for a/c opening, good offers on a/c n cards and only time I visited branch for cash withdrawal, they took care everything n brought cash while I am sitting in my place. Obviously having less customer base helps

 

[sampatir]

I told I don't know about IDFC because I don't know anything about them, as in. And everyone here is telling good things about IDFC so I don't see why IDFC won't be good too ...

yeah, just sharing my exp with idfc

 

[Souvik]

I didnt visit idfc branch for a/c opening, good offers on a/c n cards and only time I visited branch for cash withdrawal, they took care everything n brought cash while I am sitting in my place. Obviously having less customer base helps

That's good to know, that you had a good experience with IDFC, probably as they have less customers to take care of right now. Yesterday the IDFC Bank person came to my place for KYC/Document verification (Savings Bank Account opening), though the branch was far away from my place. I opened my account online some 7-10 days back so not the fastest turnaround time here. I sent him my documents over WhatsApp earlier and he himself got a printout to my place and got it signed by me, (however I had a wealth account probability scheduled with him as an incentive maybe that's why) He even told me that once in a month doorstep banking/cash delivery at home was possible.

He also took time to explain to me about balance requirements for IDFC Select and Wealth programs both in terms of TRV as well as normal savings that too at my home. Also told me that non MAB charges are not there.

FYI, KYC for IDFC Bank Credit Cards are done online as it is done centrally while KYC for Bank Accounts has to be done in person at the specific address proof submitted earlier (for my case aadhar address was not the same as my communication address).