Hi,
This is to add my observations about HDFC Bank being a customer for the past 15+ years:
- There were web site outage issues which were reported in media during past few years, but not to the gravity as expressed in many forums/news. Most of the time there was delay in NEFT payments being debited and credited to other bank’s accounts little late than expectations. Occasionally there was delay in moving from one page to next or in receiving OTP.
- It took me more than 10 working days to get PPF a/c opened through normal channel, i.e. by submitting paper based form, which ideally should have been less in my opinion.
- They promptly close the mutual fund investment account or any other account for that matter without any delay. It was done within 1-2 working days most of the time.
- Staff in the branch is co-operative and reasonable and they do understand our issues and / or concerns, if any, and guide us. This is on par with any other private bank in our area i.e. North Mumbai.
- I have faced similar issues of web site not loading, FD page not working, OTP delays with ICICI Bank, but to my surprise, I have not seen RBI taking any action against ICICI Bank. FD page not working is very common across multiple years. (Note: ICICI Bank is better in terms of its online usability, fast service, promptness, but I am just highlighting that there are issue with every bank.)
- We have many instances of ICICI Bank ATM / Debit card being cloned and money being stolen for which some customers in our area had to file FIR and visit ICICI bank multiple times to get the money credited back. Though it is done within 45 days but still there are multiple visits to the branch required. I have not seen such instances of debit card being duplicated/cloned with HDFC bank in our area. That puts HDFC bank ahead of other private peers in our area.
- Recently for one of my friend, it took almost 15+ working days just to get saving account closed in IDBI bank, after followups. That shows that, IDBI bank do not have basic processes in place just to close the existing account!! Hope that, RBI will take action against such errant banks soon…
- There is no security guard outside ATM of many banks in our area. Only notable exception is HDFC Bank, as they have ATM inside the branch and there is security guard almost all the time. It makes me wonder why other banks can not do this since their ATMs are also attached to the branch in our area, almost for 60% cases.Again, HDFC bank is better than its peers in this case, at least in our area.
I am just trying to put the right perspective here. Every coin has two sides, but some times people look at just one side of the coin since other side is ignored.
While taking action against any bank, I believe that, Central Bank should consider all facts and evidences rather than going by media/news/whatsapp chats/messages, so that there will be action against all errant banks and not just few top banks.
(Disc: Invested in HDFC bank and also ICICI bank earlier.)