I tried making a payment online using my bank account with ICICI Bank and noticed something awful.

They now have audio messages for you that plays automatically when you try to login and pay online using their platform.

I can see why they decided to take this step. But they could provide me with an option to disable them permanently.

I do not want to alert everyone around me that I am trying to login to my bank account whenever I want to do it!

I was sleeping peacefully after a hectic night when I got this call from some ICICI recovery agent.

The person on the other side talked about some bad loans. I asked her whom she wanted to speak with. She said Parveen.

I responded as politely as possible that she must have dialed the wrong number as this number does not belong to any Parveen.

Shit happened. She accused me of lying. Told me that she had talked to me last week and I am now pretending to be someone else.

I asked her (again, politely) what number she had dialed. Bang on. She had dialed the wrong number. I told her that she had made a mistake. No use. Again, you are lying.

I gave up on politeness. Yelled at the top of my voice. You have got the wrong person. You have dialed the wrong number. Cut the call.

After ten minutes, got a call back. Apologies for the previous call as they had in fact dialed the wrong number.

Result? I have a headache right now.

So, they now require me to enter an OTP to access my online bank account.

The OTP is sent on mobile and not email.

I am not getting the OTP on my phone. I assume they still have my old number in records. I do believe that I updated my number.

I called up their phone banking number. The dude says that since email ids are regularly getting hacked, they send OTP to mobile numbers.

I wonder what is more likely… me losing my phone or my email id getting hacked.

And to update my mobile number in their records, I would have to go to their branch.

The problem at my end is that I do not have my debit card. I stopped using it years ago and I have no idea where I have kept it. I can probably locate it, but I seriously do not remember its PIN number.

I guess I would have to visit the branch to get it reset too.

What I hate about this is that they would not accept my verification details through email id. I mean why? I can provide scanned copies of whatever proof they need. But I suppose, photocopies are better in person.