A quick feedback on services for people who are using IDFC First Bank as their primary bank account.
I have been using IDFC First Bank as my primary bank acccount for over 4 years now (started around the time CoVid struck us as that’s when I first learnt about IDFC First Bank and its philosophy)
In Sep 2024, my father’s account was flagged “Debit Restricted” suddenly out of the blue in the evening hour, right at the time when he needed access to the account. When I called up customer service, they simply said they cannot help. Its automated, nothing in their hands. Please wait for 48-72 hours and it will be automatically sorted, meanwhile, since IDFC First Bank is the primary bank services provider for my family, the main source of funds stood restricted.
Being a shareholder, I sent out emails to MD’s desk, Investor relations, Customer Care head, Head retail banking and in about a couple of hours I got a call back that they are in the process of getting this fixed.
Next, I got a response from MD’s desk, saying that thank you for flagging gap in our resolution process, we will have this addressed.
Fast forward 4 months - Jan 2025
This happened again, this time with my bank account. I am sitting at a hospital, making IMPS transfers to my wife’s HDFC Account because hospital has HDFC account and they say they get instant payments if made through HDFC Net Banking, and bang out of no where, same “Debit Restricted” flag appears again.
Called up customer care > They said “Too many IMPS transfers” - I made 9 transfers perhaps as I was getting invoices from the billing department at the time of discharge.
Called up customer care - same response - no change. MD’s desk said they will address the issue, sadly they don’t seem to have yet.
Again emailed same set of people on the same email thread. Been about an hour, account still remains restricted and funds are still stuck.
Bank didn’t come to help, thankfully the hospital did. I was on speaker when I was talking to customer care and the accounts person from billing department was there, so she overheard the conversation. She knew I was a genuine person with funds in my account and willingness to pay - just that the bank is causing troubles. She said - sir, please take a screenshot of your bank dashboard indicating that you have sufficient balance, I will mention this as proof of balance, write a letter and attach your ID proof / address proof copy. I will sign the discharge letter and you are free to go. Please make the payment once your account restricted flag is removed.
Having done the process, as we were prepping to leave, the accounts person visited and said - Sir, we have been using HDFC bank for about 20 years, never had such issues. You should consider moving to HDFC Bank. We previously had some issues with customer support of SBI Bank, so our payment gateway is now primarily linked to HDFC Bank and everything works flawlessly.
Reminded me of the legacy these banks have. Imagine, a customer, whose wife is stuck from being discharged, has access to money, but cannot use it - because stupid bank’s processes. They would immediately take the advice and move to HDFC Bank or whichever bank the hospital would have recommended as its a very old hospital, very trusted, been there for ages for all classes of people - from super rich to low middle class, everyone visits.
I am an investor in IDFC First and an investor in HDFC Bank. But I really believe in philosophy of IDFC First Bank - being genuinely there for your customers - but such experiences really hit deep.
For now, I will be moving my primary account to HDFC until foreseeable future.
PS: IDFC restricted for IMPS, but the destination of those IMPS was HDFC, HDFC didn’t even raise any issue, but they are otherwise very active on transaction monitoring when I make transfers or credit card payments to a new beneficiary. Shows maturity.