I am surpised by Skywalker comments. I was not aware that you have to be member of this forum for years/months before you are qalified as bonafide user who can post mesages on this forum.

To me your comments are as if you are trying to defend ICICI bank by proxy. May be you are on ICICI bank retainer to ward off any critcism.

ICICI is not the only bank I have perosnal and business account. My comments on services of ICICI bank are relative to services of other UK banks that I have recieved.

With all the banks I deal with online transfer of money between between two accounts in the same bank take place immediately. Whereas with ICICI bank, although things are certainly getting better since last time I posted my message, sometimes I can see the amount transferred between my two accounts immediately and sometimes it take few hours. Perhaps skywalker may be able to come up with a real world example and be able to explain the reason behind this phenomenon.

I accept that maintenance is required on systems every now and then. But I do not expect bank's IT system to fail with same probablity as car would break down unannounced. It is expected that such a large bank as ICICI bank would have bit more of customer focus. A simple note on the wesbite that systems maintenance is underway. It would have saved me the trouble of calling customer support personnel and listen to music for several minutes, several further minutes before she came with answer that maintenance work is being carried out.

Kiazan:

ICICI certainly offer best savings interest of 7.2% AER and is one of leading bank in India.

But you must consider how easy it is to transact using their web site. In last one month I had two instances where I could not transact online. First time is could not see the balance and got quite worried and called their customer srvices only to be told that site was down for maintenace. There was no notice on the website that maintenance is being carried out.

Second time I tried to transfer balance from Hi Save account to current account (with the same bank) and got message "Invalid account". I called the customer services one hour later and was told that I shall try again after some time. I told her that I tried an hour back and requested her to stay online whilst I try again. I got the same error "Invalit Account". I mentioned this to operator only to be told that I shall try again in few hours time.

I told operator that it is not fair that I have to try every few hours to transfer the money from my Hi Save account to current account. I asked her what happens if need the money urgently. She politely apologised for incovenience but reminded me that even though I am not able to transfer money immediately I am getting best interest rates in UK.

Now I may be overreacting or perhaps was very lucky with other banks and never had any problem with them.

Happy savings to you all.

Good post. Very helpful.Thanks.

Oh dear.....I am always a little suspicious when somebody joins the forum, out of the blue, with a scathing attack on a financial institution. I have been with Icici Bank for more than 2 years as a saver. I have my hiSave account linked with Barclays and I have never experienced a single problem with either.

What I have noticed here, is that there are a few posters who seem to have an ongoing issue with service providers, regardless of which service is being discussed. It's facinating. I can't believe I can be so lucky - or is it just that I am more tolerant, and patient? Money transfers can take up to 5 working days - I have no idea why it can take such a long time in this electronic age, but it can do. And that is the point - things do not always work 100%, do you have a 100% work attendence record? Of course not. Always build in a little 'tolerance' period into any transactions involving money and you will probably find things go much better.

As for maintenance notices - does your car give you such notice before it breaks down? Of course not.

ICICI certainly offer best savings interest of 7.2% AER and is one of leading bank in India.

But you must consider how easy it is to transact using their web site. In last one month I had two instances where I could not transact online. First time is could not see the balance and got quite worried and called their customer srvices only to be told that site was down for maintenace. There was no notice on the website that maintenance is being carried out.

Second time I tried to transfer balance from Hi Save account to current account (with the same bank) and got message "Invalid account". I called the customer services one hour later and was told that I shall try again after some time. I told her that I tried an hour back and requested her to stay online whilst I try again. I got the same error "Invalit Account". I mentioned this to operator only to be told that I shall try again in few hours time.

I told operator that it is not fair that I have to try every few hours to transfer the money from my Hi Save account to current account. I asked her what happens if need the money urgently. She politely apologised for incovenience but reminded me that even though I am not able to transfer money immediately I am getting best interest rates in UK.

Now I may be overreacting or perhaps was very lucky with other banks and never had any problem with them.

Happy savings to you all.

Thanks Skywalker,

Very interesting I will take a look at the terms.

This is a new account that pays 7.20% AER (wef: 26 July 2008) however there are no early redemptions and you must leave the money in the account for 12 months.

Details as always on the ICICI Bank website. www.icicibank.co.uk/hisave_fixedrate.html