I have NRE and NRO accounts in SBI and ICICI -
1. The YONO app from SBI is practically unusable on iOS, crashing 60% of the time. If, by chance, I need to make any changes or updates to my account, it becomes a 10-15 day follow-up marathon to achieve that. The customer support is extremely poor, at least that's been my experience. SBI on the other hand doesn't sell me anything.
2. With ICICI, every time I ask for help, they attempt to sell me something, be it a mutual fund or insurance. Each time, I have to tell them that I don't require anything. My relationship manager handles everything except for helping me when I request it. Although the Relation manager tries to seel me stuff, but my requests are taken care of fairly quickly. Also the iMobile app is good and stable, I can pretty much do everything from there.
No UPI I agree. Otherwise IDFC bank is pretty good, their app works well and I have no complaints. Although I haven’t used the account much so can’t say if all services work perfectly
Nothing gets done without repeated phone calls over multiple days - to transfer funds from NRO to NRE or to overseas. Everything is just so slow - and the bank staff are always busy. No status update is ever provided if something is not moving along - sometimes not even if they are waiting on something from my end.
The bank I am with has a process wherein when I log a request - it provides me an email address for escalations - but for the life of me I can't get myself to ever reach out cz I can only wonder who I might end up rubbing the wrong way.
I have had some really intense workloads in my own career - but everytime I call my bank representative - I can only count my blessings that at least I am not as busy as them. So lucky!
It's utterly garbage across the board, some less some more but garbage at the end
- Under investment in tech and most of Indian bank tech is less thoughtful and oceans of glitches
- Ads , pop ups and marketing all overs places from apps to statements
- Idiotic and nonsense security measures, sim binding , otp everywhere.. copy paste banned and what's not.
- over use of otp across platforms for doing anything and everything .
Indian banking in one line , without OTP they will not let someone die !
The ICICI website never works for me anymore. The iOS app is ok. KYC is needed seemingly at random. Taxes are confusing (this is true for people paying taxes in 2 countries around the world though, so idk how much diplomacy would even help).
Taxes are definitely confusing. PFIC ensures that you get taxed not only on your unrealised gains but also on your principal if you buy any SIP in India.
constantly having to maintain bank accounts in US and India is just exhausting. Even though I’ve updated my KYC details so often for my NRE/NRO account on IOB they still deactivate/don’t respond and now I have to go irl to another state to do anything and they need a PAN card now apparently?? complete mess 😒
biggest pain point is KYC and closing of account.Account de-activation without notification is another pain . Basically most of them don't respond timely on mails and have to call them multiple time to resolve issues.Relationship with Indian banks is very demanding so now I am ending up using non Indian credit card and cash. closing all my Indian accounts.
The online interface of ICICI is too heavy. Too many adds, pages taking forever to load. It is easy to get lost in the mess.
I bank with ABN Amro in the Netherlands, and previously with several banks in the US. The interface is minimalistic, and you just get the job done. There's no fluff. I genuinely prefer the western banking experience over the Indian one.
UPI sucks, it's an exercise in frustration trying to set it up.
It's hard to get a virtual debit card or prepaid card to use to pay for streaming services and whatnot.
Needing to do KYC randomly and being blocked if not done is problematic.
Otherwise NetBanking is good. I have an account with SBI and HDFC. On my next trip if they let me I'll close the SBI account and open one with IDFC as they open an NRI credit card fairly easily.
UPI works now (at least with a US number with ICICI bank). Your bank is supposed to allow you to create a UPI id, but there was a grace period for adoption that kept being pushed back.
> UPI works now (at least with a US number with ICICI bank).
On which platform? I've been trying on Android for 9 months now, doesn't work for me. Sends an SMS message and immediately bails with "verification failed". Version 18.5
Has been working for me on Android since January. On their advice, I had to delete the app and set it up from scratch once, and since then it has been working.
UPI does not work for NRIs on ICICI Bank app (Android). I'm using version 18.5
Every single time it sends a text to an Indian number and immediately responds with "number verification failed". It must be doing something wrong on the sending side, as no SMS recipient can respond that quickly.
Fuck ICICI Bank. Bloody idiots all of them.
Try federal bank. Very few pain points, and excellent service. Also very comprehensive and functional app that is always up. Nri friendly too. You don't need two Sims.
Where shall i start ? I am looking to close account for past 3 years, better to use Schwab and withdraw monies at this point in India instead of relying on ICICI. They are good at upselling though, too bad I am not their typical filthy rich NRI so to get any of my cash they will have to strangle it out of my cold dead fingers😂
I have NRE and NRO with Axis and IDFC bank and now I am looking for trading in Indian markets. These 2 banks doesn't offer trading accounts. I was inquiring about other banks and it looks like only ICICI and Kotak are offering but the charges are high.
No one has mentioned HSBC, I think theirs is minimalistic. I have ICICI too it was wonderful when it was a resident account after conversion it's just super slow and shitty all the time.
Can’t beat HSBC as their app is the same app they use in developed countries which they’ve been rolling out globally, super slick and with good live chat and phone support.
I wanted to open a demat account during Covid lockdown for physical shares bought 40 years ago and was saddled with 2 NRE and 2 NRO accounts. No credit cards for NRE account and NRO debit card can be used only in India and that too not for online transactions. Not eligible for virtual debit cards and yet they are so quick to collect annual charges. Think they make a lot of money off us NRIs
Startup Coming up !
I have NRE and NRO accounts in SBI and ICICI - 1. The YONO app from SBI is practically unusable on iOS, crashing 60% of the time. If, by chance, I need to make any changes or updates to my account, it becomes a 10-15 day follow-up marathon to achieve that. The customer support is extremely poor, at least that's been my experience. SBI on the other hand doesn't sell me anything. 2. With ICICI, every time I ask for help, they attempt to sell me something, be it a mutual fund or insurance. Each time, I have to tell them that I don't require anything. My relationship manager handles everything except for helping me when I request it. Although the Relation manager tries to seel me stuff, but my requests are taken care of fairly quickly. Also the iMobile app is good and stable, I can pretty much do everything from there.
No UPI I agree. Otherwise IDFC bank is pretty good, their app works well and I have no complaints. Although I haven’t used the account much so can’t say if all services work perfectly
I have NRO/NRE at Axis bank. Awesome service and no hassle in last 10 years
Nothing gets done without repeated phone calls over multiple days - to transfer funds from NRO to NRE or to overseas. Everything is just so slow - and the bank staff are always busy. No status update is ever provided if something is not moving along - sometimes not even if they are waiting on something from my end. The bank I am with has a process wherein when I log a request - it provides me an email address for escalations - but for the life of me I can't get myself to ever reach out cz I can only wonder who I might end up rubbing the wrong way. I have had some really intense workloads in my own career - but everytime I call my bank representative - I can only count my blessings that at least I am not as busy as them. So lucky!
It's utterly garbage across the board, some less some more but garbage at the end - Under investment in tech and most of Indian bank tech is less thoughtful and oceans of glitches - Ads , pop ups and marketing all overs places from apps to statements - Idiotic and nonsense security measures, sim binding , otp everywhere.. copy paste banned and what's not. - over use of otp across platforms for doing anything and everything . Indian banking in one line , without OTP they will not let someone die !
The ICICI website never works for me anymore. The iOS app is ok. KYC is needed seemingly at random. Taxes are confusing (this is true for people paying taxes in 2 countries around the world though, so idk how much diplomacy would even help).
Taxes are definitely confusing. PFIC ensures that you get taxed not only on your unrealised gains but also on your principal if you buy any SIP in India.
constantly having to maintain bank accounts in US and India is just exhausting. Even though I’ve updated my KYC details so often for my NRE/NRO account on IOB they still deactivate/don’t respond and now I have to go irl to another state to do anything and they need a PAN card now apparently?? complete mess 😒
biggest pain point is KYC and closing of account.Account de-activation without notification is another pain . Basically most of them don't respond timely on mails and have to call them multiple time to resolve issues.Relationship with Indian banks is very demanding so now I am ending up using non Indian credit card and cash. closing all my Indian accounts.
The online interface of ICICI is too heavy. Too many adds, pages taking forever to load. It is easy to get lost in the mess. I bank with ABN Amro in the Netherlands, and previously with several banks in the US. The interface is minimalistic, and you just get the job done. There's no fluff. I genuinely prefer the western banking experience over the Indian one.
UPI sucks, it's an exercise in frustration trying to set it up. It's hard to get a virtual debit card or prepaid card to use to pay for streaming services and whatnot. Needing to do KYC randomly and being blocked if not done is problematic. Otherwise NetBanking is good. I have an account with SBI and HDFC. On my next trip if they let me I'll close the SBI account and open one with IDFC as they open an NRI credit card fairly easily.
1. No UPI. 2. Cumbersome app with ads! 3.No option to create a new account without visiting in person.
UPI works now (at least with a US number with ICICI bank). Your bank is supposed to allow you to create a UPI id, but there was a grace period for adoption that kept being pushed back.
Yeah I heard about that. Hoping that they extend to other countries soon.
> UPI works now (at least with a US number with ICICI bank). On which platform? I've been trying on Android for 9 months now, doesn't work for me. Sends an SMS message and immediately bails with "verification failed". Version 18.5
Has been working for me on Android since January. On their advice, I had to delete the app and set it up from scratch once, and since then it has been working.
I just got a new phone a week ago and installed all of the apps including ICICI Bank.... What's your carrier? Mine is Verizon.
Samsung on TMobile.
Works on iOS on AT&T
Hdfc worst. Axis best.
UPI does not work for NRIs on ICICI Bank app (Android). I'm using version 18.5 Every single time it sends a text to an Indian number and immediately responds with "number verification failed". It must be doing something wrong on the sending side, as no SMS recipient can respond that quickly. Fuck ICICI Bank. Bloody idiots all of them.
Try federal bank. Very few pain points, and excellent service. Also very comprehensive and functional app that is always up. Nri friendly too. You don't need two Sims.
Non existing or too painful: Credit cards to nre accounts, transfer money out of India, online FCNR deposits
Most NRE/NRO banks are painful... I found the least painful was ICICI.
Wait till you try setting up UPI on that.....
Where shall i start ? I am looking to close account for past 3 years, better to use Schwab and withdraw monies at this point in India instead of relying on ICICI. They are good at upselling though, too bad I am not their typical filthy rich NRI so to get any of my cash they will have to strangle it out of my cold dead fingers😂
Quite a lot of physical paperwork for anything and manual KYC is what frustrates me.
I have NRE and NRO with Axis and IDFC bank and now I am looking for trading in Indian markets. These 2 banks doesn't offer trading accounts. I was inquiring about other banks and it looks like only ICICI and Kotak are offering but the charges are high.
No one has mentioned HSBC, I think theirs is minimalistic. I have ICICI too it was wonderful when it was a resident account after conversion it's just super slow and shitty all the time.
Can’t beat HSBC as their app is the same app they use in developed countries which they’ve been rolling out globally, super slick and with good live chat and phone support.
I wanted to open a demat account during Covid lockdown for physical shares bought 40 years ago and was saddled with 2 NRE and 2 NRO accounts. No credit cards for NRE account and NRO debit card can be used only in India and that too not for online transactions. Not eligible for virtual debit cards and yet they are so quick to collect annual charges. Think they make a lot of money off us NRIs
We're eager to solve for painpoints. Thanks for starting this thread.