I had earlier criticized ICICI for keeping the minimum balance at an amount I thought was pretty high (Rs. 5000) but I certainly was not ready for this. I saw a Citibank advertisement on some site about their Suvidha account which was offering zero balance bank accounts. I thought of getting some information on this stuff and literally got shell shocked.
The Citibank representative asked me about my employment status which is certainly not a question I had like to respond to at the current moment. Secondly he asked me about my average balance I maintained in my ICICI account. The average for the last 6-7 months was above half a lakh though not so good at the moment (I am literally broke at this very moment). Well, this was the turning point. The representative simply got dismayed at this number and replied that he was helpless in my case as Citibank India has the minimum balance requirement of a lakh of rupees (approx USD 2300). The zero balance accounts was reserved for people working in companies in pact with Citibank and that too only in the capital city of Delhi…
Pretty darn interesting. How many people in India can manage that much! Maybe the IITians or the IIMs working in MNCs. But not the general public in India, not even an average businessman.
Maybe the lack of consumers is the reason why we don’t have that many Citibank branches and ATMs in the country. But who can blame them! They are living in a world of their own. They don’t accept people who would like an account with them just because they are not rich enough…
I cannot open a Citibank bank account because I am not a lakhpati! I think I will avoid the embarrassment of checking the minimum requirement in HSBC which was my second choice to get a second bank account…
Also worth mentioning is the fact that Citibank India Website is not Opera compliant even though the american site is. Pretty sad… Even more so when it recommends you to get IE5 or Netscape 4.7!
Your browser must be upgraded!
We are sorry, but in order to provide our customers with the most technologically advanced internet security features,we require Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0+ or Netscape Communicator 4.7+.
Our system has detected that your browser does not match this standard. Here are links to download the upgrade you need.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 download page
Netscape Navigator 4.7download page
Thank you!
I am surprised to note that despite so many complaints of serious nature citi bank is doing brisk business. The credit card of citi bank is not is not of any help for the common man. Eventhough SC has ruled that citi bank for that matter any credit card issuing bank cannot charge interest at more than 18% and RBI regulations issuong guidelines in this regard they are voilating the rules with immunity and liberally quote RBI rules ,it is like, devil quoting scriptures. Their actions of charging heft interest rate invite comtempt of court proceedings.
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