Speak up about your worst banking experience. 🗣

[Seher_Mehta1 (Seher Mehta)]

Edit: Congratulations to @RAIJAZ for winning this contest

Continue sharing your worst experiences on this thread.

Summary

Thank your bank one last time – especially for the all the times that they made you want to pull your hair out in frustration. We already expect very little in the way of smooth sailings and happy moments from our banks. And even within those limited expectations, we’ve all been disappointed one too many times.

But here’s your chance to turn that disappointment into something positive.

Rant about or recall your worst banking experience below. From clueless customer support, to broken apps, to tedious physical processes and annoying sales executives.

Sure, but what’s in it for me?

Apart from us making sure you never face these problems on Jupiter? Glad you asked.

1. A coooool Jupiter Metal Edition card
2. Some Neat space-age Jupiter merch
3. A 30 min. session with literally anyone from Jupiter (all the way up to our founder!)

I’m in! What do I do?
Just 2 things:

1. Reply to this topic and describe your worst banking experience
2. Copy the link to your reply, share it with your friends, and ask them to comment or like – first is preferred, second is the bare minimum. So push ‘em.
3. Every time someone comments or likes your response, you score points!

Oh great a points system
Well, we can’t let it be subjective. But we’re keeping things simple:

1. A comment from a New User on your reply will get you 3x points
2. A comment from a Community Champions will get you 2x points
3. Every like on your reply will add 1 point
4. Every reply counts as one entry with 1 point (Which means you can choose to share multiple worst experiences )

We can almost hear someone cracking their knuckles and saying, “Ah, my time has come.”
So don’t wait, go nuts.

Deadline: EXTENDED TILL 31st October

[Neil]

I despise banking. The rules favor the banks. All their bullshit about service and customers-first is just that.
It happened with me during the Demonetization period at ICICI bank, Darbhanga branch.

I had some amount of old notes with me which had to be submitted before 30th dec 2016. Otherwise it would have been useless. So i approached bank on 28th Dec.

I was not an account holder. My mom and my sister hold a joint account. My mom had given me an authority letter to make the deposit on her behalf and to represent her.

I reached bank, filled the deposit slip and submitted the money with the cash to the teller. He accepted it and gave me the remitters slip. I was then waiting for someone in the bank. After 5 mins or so, the teller came to me and said that your deposit cannot be accepted. I was then asked to see the manager who took my remitters slip and told me that the money cannot be deposited since my kyc for the account is not complete.

The real drama started now. I told them that my sister had completed the kyc just 15 days ago (after Demonetization). But they wanted the re kyc done. So i asked them about what paperworks where required for the kyc updation… before telling me the documents, they told me it would take 7 days for kyc updation. (Which bank takes 7 days for kyc updation in 2017 i dont know).

Then they tell me that the account holder will have to personally come to the bank to do the needful. I knew they were making this up. So i protested. But they wont budge.

Then i asked them if there was a way i can deposit the old notes since only 2 more days were left for. Imagine my surprise when the manager said “you can try other banks”. In nowhere in the history of banking, a manager of pvt bank would have advised a customer to make deposit in some other bank.

Anyhow, i was a bit desperate and they looked not interested in helping me. I started suggesting ways to make the deposit. I asked them if i can open another account? They told me i cant open with old notes. They said they are not allowed to open new accounts with old notes. (So all those who did not have account were supposed to let there cash go waste). I asked them to show me the circular which instructed them for the same. They fumbled. And then said that its at the discretion of the bank to decide whether to open an account or not. So in short they were telling me that they will not open my account. They refused to open my account. By this time i had lost my temper and was arguing loudly with the managers.

Usually, the customer tell the problem and the bank ppl tell the solution. Here, the customer was telling the solution and the manager was stonewalling. They were taking absolutely no interest and initiative in helping me. ICICI did not want the old notes to be deposited and hence where doing everything to avoid it 2 days before the actual deadline.

Then as i was leaving, i again filled the deposit slip and asked the manager to write down the reason for refusing to deposit the money. The manager refused to even give the reason in wiring. He said they will only talk to the account holder about anything. I reminded him that i had the authority letter from the account holder and that any reason for denial of deposit has to be communicated to me. He said the letter has no meaning and asked me to exit the bank. Some other employee also came and started criticizing me to waste the time. Then he looked at the manager and said, why are you wasting your time. Stop talking to him.

I was treated like i was breaking the law and trespassing in the bank when i was just a common person trying to deposit money in account. The tone of the security guard changed after this.

I decided never to have any business with the ICICI ever again even though its next to my residence. Because if the bank cannot help me when i need its help the most, then whats the point of doing business with it.

[kingzeusvj (Vishwas Joshi)]

Someone has registered on ICICI Direct with my email address; and daily I receive notifications of trade. In vain, I am back of ICICI Direct to delete my email from the notification emails; but it is of no use.

[kushalkothari]

Worst banking experience:

I have had multiple accounts and have had bad experience across almost all of them. But one bank takes the cake, easily - SBI bank

back in 2012 i had taken an education loan. Afte graduating from the university, the bank just couldnt send me interest statements! I had to email the branch multiple times, even raise it to RBI ombudsmen to get my annual interest certificate. this happened every year for about three years untill i finally closed my account, at which point they wanted me to come down their branch in ahmedabad!

In fact, this is something that bugs me each year… None of the bank can provide an annual statement old than, say, 6 months. It is just so frustrating especially when you need these statements when filing returns.

[Usman]

I recently wanted to update my mobile number on my account. I did not have my previous number with me anymore.

At the same time, I also wanted to update my debit card PIN as I forgot my previous PIN.

To change the debit card pin, they will send a one time passcode via SMS but since I don’t have my previous mobile number with me, I have no way to receive the PIN.
There is NO way to update the mobile phone number online. The process to update mobile phone number - a simple act - requires one to do the following:

1. Print a PDF form
2. Fill up the form
3. Scan the form and email it or mail it

Now in this pandemic, access to the printer/scanner in a library or one’s workplace isn’t possible. But this bank wants us to go out to print and post the documents just to update the mobile number on the account.

The other way to update the phone number is to call them. To call them, they want us to provide the debit card number and PIN, which I don’t have.
See my problem? (Now help me get a metal card )

[Manyaa (Manya)]

Okay so since its about Relativity I’ll go with the one most of us must’ve experienced

Citibank has super annoying customer service team. You first explain the issue to one person who after understanding forwards the call to the next one and then you freaking have to tell the tale again and then he further transfers the calls. Bus ye pass in the parcel khelte rehte hai and guess what?
After explaining to 20 different people, the issue is still not resolved. because someone will hang up and all your effort is wasted. Sheer waste of time.

[Lakshmisha_KS]

Hi

This is regarding my Food Voucher card which is provided by my company. The card had strict rule which enabled transaction only when the card was used in outlets within the campus (as per Tax/RBI guidelines)

Post Covid, we requested the company to allow us flexibility to use it outside given that most of us are WFH. The company did enable this after few months. They enabled it for use only on Swiggy and Zomato for prepared food orders only.
However the experience has been terrible.

Even though sufficient balance exists in the card, it routinely keeps rejecting transaction citing insufficient balance. The fact that this happens randomly but routinely is very frustrating. Additionally even though this has been highlighted to the company, their responsiveness is not up to the mark.

The additional quip about the Bank is that stringent measures for card protection including frequent pin changes, randomly locking accounts and many other such activities in the name of security.

While I can understand having such security where I have significant money invested in, but for an account that manages food vouchers it seems excessive. As an user I am ok with having such an secured card given the value of money involved.

I am extremely frustrated with Bank but have to endure it given that I have no choice as this is a decision by my employer. The other option is to forgo 9K potential tax savings to escape this.

[dhaval]

My brother and I had just purchased a house for our parents and went to the bank to secure a mortgage.

We were informed by the officer that our first payment was due Feb 20th, as we had bought our house in Jan.

Even though we had money in the bank, we planned our first payment for 20th Feb.

On Feb 15th I received this dreadful letter from the bank, telling us that we were in arrears by (4) weeks, basically, they had started foreclosure on us, because we had missed (4) payments. We rushed to the bank and was told that rather than having a * monthly * mortgage payment; our mortgage payment was in fact weekly ! A fact that our mortgage loans officer had gotten wrong but guess who paid the penalty ofc us!

[nprashant_nayakanti (prashant nayakanti)]

Banking is an essential activity, just enjoy the process

[nprashant_nayakanti (prashant nayakanti)]

Put a direct message on the social media handle of ICICI direct, it might work

[farzandfz (Farzand Khan)]

frankly speaking, I’ve been to banks only a limited number of times in my life, last time I checked my evolution clock, I was in digital age, it doesn’t make sense to go there, right? right?

Despite of being a citizen of connected world without borders, when it comes to app, I avoid using that unless I want to check the last 5 transactions and as far as web is concerned, it only helps when I need a csv dump of all my transactions.

Anything else? No. Since I recently got a job and I’m just getting started with my career, I don’t have a lot of experience around things which people do at banks

But as we speak and change the world in a better way, I want my banking experience to get better too, so here’s list of things which I disliked so far:

1. Filling Forms

2. Standing in the queue

3. Figuring out which counter to go to?
   (Easy avoidable, just get a bank which needs no physical presence to do business?)

4. Money failed to send with UPI but deducted from account (I hate it when this happens, Is it Phonepay or my bank, never happens with Paytm though)

5. I don’t know, what can I do with my bank? Yes, true. I’m that dumb. What is an FD btw? I was never taught this in school, Yes

there are other things as well, thankfully Jupiter team is well aware of it.

[nprashant_nayakanti (prashant nayakanti)]

Yes only the visits to Bank lockers cannot be digitized.

Locker holders have to visit their bank branch to access the same.
Or is there any other way?
All other major bank functions are almost digitized.

[DINESH_CHANDRASEKARA (DINESH CHANDRASEKARAN)]

I cannot talk about Banks, but can talk about Fintech companies. Many Fintech companies state they are better than banks, but haven’t proved anything yet. For example, one scenario is:
I have a Faircent account, however I No longer use it and invest. If I call their customer care to close account, they treat like shit. When acquiring customers, they come luring customers with KYC, offers and others. That preference for customer is lost when he leaves the platform. Still the account is not closed, because of extreme comments during the interaction during the account closure. End result - receiving “Email and SMS notifications” for Faircent every single day, for an unused account.

I hope Jupiter does not do like other Fintech - “just let a customer go out whenever he wants to”. Waiting for the product launch.

Also while I don’t know the internal specific of Jupiter, I expect it to resolve problems which banks cannot do, that’s my preference. Like better analytical tools for savings and investments, etc; tracking budgets and providing analytics on where money is spent more, etc. Looking forward for it

[MIR_SHABIB]

My Credit Card experience with banks have been terrible. One particular bank is HDFC:

• I get a 100 calls from a 100 different people asking if I want to upgrade my credit limit even after I have given clear instructions if I do or don’t.

• Upgrading my credit card- I have tried upgrading my credit card however this hasn’t happened at all. I somehow reach the customer support line to ask then to upgrade it and they tell YES it will be upgraded but that still hasn’t happen (been a few months), I go on the net banking portal to upgrade it but that tab is always * coming soon *

[rupeshmandal]

SBI

In 2008 my father had opened a PPF account in my name. At that time there was no CBS. It was all manual entry. Handwritten passbooks.
After depositing for many years, suddenly I receive a letter regarding the KYC of the account and there I got to know that due to human error while opening the PPF account my father’s CIF was written (with whom I had another joint account and ironically he was working in the same branch) instead of writing my CIF. So technically, the account has my name but my father’s CIF. Since the PPF account can’t be closed before 15 years of completion, the only thing I can do is wait.

[Shivan_Nair]

Hi, I am not sure how to answer your question. Banking is definitely bad in India. Still there are many banks don’t even have a good mobile app. They also lack basic functionality. For instance, in SBI, if I add a beneficiary for funds transfer, It takes 4 hours to get added. Nobody can do immediate cash transfer.

Fintechs aren’t good too. Had a negative experience with them already. Like InstaReM. Was using it to invest in US stock market. Money went missing along the way, the company denied it and completely lost. I believe many Fintech companies says it in words, but in reality, they are similar to banks or sometimes worse than them.

Both Banks and Fintech companies should mature in India.

[nprashant_nayakanti (prashant nayakanti)]

What is ‘Immediate cash transfer’?

[nprashant_nayakanti (prashant nayakanti)]

A couple of weeks back applied for https://www.vcard.ai/ .
The physical card is issued by RBL bank

As per VI card site, the joining fees for the card is 499/& waived for the first year.

2nd year onwards fees are waived if the spends are more than 1lac.

However, as per RBL bank terms and conditions, the joining fee is 750/_ .

No coordination between the bank and the fintech company!!

[Imashish (Ashish kumar)]

So I’ve an account with most of the popular banks some of them are icici, hdfc, kotak, dbs, standard chartered, yes bank, idfc, paytm payment bank, airtel payment bank, axis and many more…
And the worst experience was with axis bank, that i recently opened and regret to open it.
So the incident starts from the day 1 .
Visited to axis bank branch to open an account ( last time i visited canara bank branch during monetization, and don’t like to visit branch cause most of my work done online) so i ask to open a zero balance Saving Account and the official denied directly that we do not open zero balance account. If you want to open an account then we have a Savings account with MAB of 10k. That too cost you a annual fee for debit card and cheque book and many more charges if you deposit cash in branch etc etc…
I said okah can i transfer 10k cause i forget my cheque book at my hometown (current I’m at my residential address) and they said it would be great if you submit a cheque, but finally he agree to take the payment in cash and then he filled my form (even he does not asked which debit card you want as axis has various debit card) and gave me a kit. Day after I’ve again visited to branch to submit the cash to open the account and he talked to there manager (don’t know what) and then he takes about an hour to decide wjat to do…den comes to me and said do you have residential address proof i already told them yesterday that I don’t have address proof now why are you asking the same and there manager said sorry but we cannot open an account without current address proof. I said sir, I’ve many account at the same address if you want then I’ll submit a soft copy of the statement of my another bank. Again denied then might be he(agent) has to reach there target he somehow managed and opened my account. Account opened day after submitting the amount and received the confirmation message. Now NetBanking and upi is not working called axis cs and they said there is some issue with your account so you need to visit branch tp resolve the same, i said but i opened the account yesterday and day first this happened that I’ve to visit branch. Then i know the dark side of axis (while YouTubing and googling) after a day i contacted the same agent and provide the detailed information of the issue and he said he don’t know anything come branch we’ll check. (Ohh i forget something, there own executive don’t know the benefit of a Savings account that he opened) i said i cannot able to come cause at the same time my office timing is there. So helpme to resolve the issue. Now he is not picking up the call and i totally disappointed and regretting that why i opened an account somehow i found a trick to activate the same by visiting the atm(atm was on way of office) problem resolved after a week and still I’m not able to login/register for there NetBanking and they don’t know what’s the issue is.
Also last to last week i tried to make a purchase on debit card on Flipkart and the Transaction got declined then i again tried on phonepe/amazon same goes on. Contacted axis support and they said they forwarding the issue to concern team and wil get an update within 3 days. Takes a week to activate card for on-line transection.

I totally disappointed with the axis bank services and regretting to open an account with axis. For a normal query they need customer to visit branch.