ICICI Credit Card against FD - Avoid them

I have been an ICICI Bank Customer from 5 years, so when the time came to choose a Credit Card, ICICI Bank was first choice. Bad Choice I must say!

Since I do freelancing, I searched for Credit Card options suited to my needs. Came across various banks which offered Credit Card against Fixed Deposit, chose ICICI. Made a request to ICICI Bank by opening a fixed deposit on 7th December (SR248774574). Though it said “Instant Credit Card”, i expected a week time to reach it to me(I live in Delhi). Didn’t get it by 17th so made a complaint on Twitter. Finally after a lot of mails and calls(they couldn’t locate Service Request number), got it on 19th(email conversation was with Vinodhini V). Very bad experience, but it was only starting.

Used it for Verification purpose on PayPal and Facebook Ads, which deducted $1.95 and $1.00 respectively. Both amount were refunded within minutes. But when I tried using it on 21st to make payment to Facebook, I got Transaction declined by Bank error. Since I didn’t get any notification from ICICI Bank(which otherwise keeps me spamming on SMS & Email with various services), I tried different variation of address thinking it might be the cause.

My Facebook Ad account got suspended because I kept on trying same card, PayPal too need Credit Card statement for further verification(regular practice from their side).

Finally after unable to even use it on PayTm(Indian company, which doesn’t require address details), I made a call to Customer Care on 24th night. There only I got to know that my card was blocked on suspicion of fraud, by Mr. Vikram Shareef. On asking why I was not informed about the blocked status, he told me that they didn’t have my email address(insert LOL here). I asked him to transfer to supervisor. It was then answered by some Ms. Raisa. She couldn’t answer either as to why no notification was sent, but asked me to call next day because they can’t afford a Risk team between 8PM-8AM. Poor bank you know.

So finally I did make a call today(Dec 25) and was picked by Ms. Ruchi. I asked her to redirect my call to Fraud(risk) team. She didn’t, so I asked her to redirect to some supervisor. Came in Ms. Priya Gupta. She said today is corporate holiday and fraud (risk) team is unavailable. On asking why Raisa didn’t mentioned it yesterday, Priya said that she might have forgotten it ( any suprise? ). I asked her if ICICI Bank can’t afford Risk team on holiday but can afford to have them available, She said “no comments”(Well trained, not very helpful to customers though). I believe ICICI Bank thinks anyone below rank of Manager is a machine & doesn’t need off for holiday. Only Manager+ need to celebrate festivals.

So I requested a card on 7th, and on 25th I am yet to start using it. There is almost a certain chance of them offering a replacement card(after reading this maybe), which would mean I would lose my PayPal account (they need statement for Same credit card, I can’t add another card now). The new card would mean another 2 weeks wait(given I complain again) and they might block it again. Cycle continues.

As you might have guessed by now, I want to cancel my card. But even for that I need to wait 48 hours. Poor ICICI Bank, i told you.

So my suggestion is to avoid getting a credit card from ICICI Bank. Go for better options & other banks. ICICI Bank is so poor and given their service, you might lose important time and important accounts, all thanks to fail service by them.

ICICI Bank Credit Card Team is a fraud waiting to happen!

Jatin Sapra

More details:

Tweet after not getting card: https://twitter.com/jatinsapra/status/281315737...

Tweet bringing Credit Card issue: https://twitter.com/jatinsapra/status/283257779...

My suggestion on Facebook: ht...// http://www.facebook.com/jatinsapra/posts/101523...