Review || Citi

As promised, here comes a post on Citi ...

I started banking with Citi when I got my first job because my first salary account was with Citi. As soon as my 'Savings Account' started with them, I took up a Citibank Indian Oil card as the card promised tempting fuel rewards and I was planning to buy a car.

The Initial Impression:

Citi is high-fi! The moment you enter into Citi's system, that's the feel that you get. They prefer their customers to do online/tele banking in place of banking in person, not that they have a problem if you come to their branch, just that their preference is different.

With time and relationships, my experience with Citi kept changing.

Banking experience (Online):

Their online interface contains a button for every possible option that a user may choose. Though the interface is not pretty, it is very useful.

One thing that I've heard works very well for people, but sadly that never worked properly for me, was syncing credit cards with savings accounts.

Next, off late, the interface contains new 'Offers' and emails in an 'Inbox' which are basically ideas to promote new products. These are not disturbing but are not very pleasant to look at either. Nevertheless, the whole (online) banking experience is not bad.

Customer Service:

5/5

Be it getting an add-on credit card or closing an account, there is no 'chik-chik' with the Citi guys. Whatever you wish to do, just select the corresponding option on their online interface. In case it is not available, a 'Query' can be dropped to them or they can be called. The TAT for customer requests and/or queries is short.

Sometimes, I've heard people complain about procedures. Let's face it, every organization and more so, every bank has a certain procedure. Following processes is not bad. What is bad is using the label of 'processes' and delaying things unnecessarily. Luckily, I haven't faced such a situation with Citi yet.

Points Redemption

Citi offers points not just for credit cards, but also for transactions (as per quantity & currency volume) on the Savings Account. The only condition with these (account) points is that they lapse when the financial year ends. For the credit card, thankfully, points get accumulated. Since I have an Indian Oil Credit Card, I must say, I'm extremely happy for I get a fuel surcharge waiver at every Indian Oil petrol pump and I can conveniently redeem my credit card points for free fuel. The best part about points redemption is that it is super quick - Just drive in to an Indian Oil petrol pump authorized for points redemption (check the list on Citi's website), give your card and ask the helper to redeem your points.

USP:

If you choose the language 'English' for Customer Service, then the executives know how to speak in English. Jokes apart, Citi Privileges enable you to get 15-20% discounts at various eating & shopping outlets. Citi has a tie-up with certain merchants due to which the customers get extra points on every swipe.

Bad:
As mentioned earlier, Citi is high-fi. For most of the accounts, a high deposit is required. So Citi banking is not meant for a regular, middle-class person like me.

Improvements:

Though the current situation of the online interface is not bad, we could do with some improvements in its look & feel.

My Special Feature:

The security system of Citi. Whenever you try to set or change an IPIN, the system does not allow you to use any of the previous 6 (or may be 10) passwords. The setup is quite strict as one always has to use the virtual keyboard. I get extremely irritated whenever I have to change my IPIN, primarily because I can't think of an IPIN which can be easily remembered yet is cryptic enough. Despite this, I prefer to use Citi because the whole setup makes a customer feel safe.

My Special Moment:

45 days prior to the expiry of my card, I received an email from Citi asking me to confirm my residential address so that they can send me the new card on that address. I don't know how many days in advance does RBI ask banks to have a correspondence with credit card customers, but I was extremely happy to see an organization work with planning & time management.

Review || Why I regret taking a StanC card?

My mother and I are regular customers of Lifestyle and Auchan ("pronounced as O-shaan"). Hence, we opted for an Inner Circle Membership. One day, we received a mailer wherein Standard Chartered bank was offering a credit card having a tie-up with Inner Circle (of Landmark Group) wherein, the customer was offered 3 times the points we usually get besides other discounts. Out of temptation, I applied for this card and this is a decision that I have been regretting ever since I received this card.

The Initial Impression:

Within minutes of clicking the link, "Click here to apply", I got a call from their customer service desk, despite the fact that it was a Sunday. Within a couple of hours, the verification calls were done and within 2 days, the documents had been collected. I was impressed by their swiftness, only to realize that this swiftness is a salient feature of the Sales department, unlike that of the Customer Services.

The Bads:

1. Since the initial click, I had maintained that I wanted to apply for two cards - One for myself and second, an add-on card, for my mother. I was delivered my card but the add-on card didn't come! Considering it to be a 'usual human error', I dropped a note to their email address informing them about the non-receipt of the card. Result? No response! Only after 3 emails, including one accusing them of false promises & scaring them in the name of Consumer Forum, did the card get delivered at my home.

Ironically, I received a reply on one of those emails 3 months after the delivery of the card, quoting the courier number and mentioning that the card had been received. Good Morning guys!

2. Though their online banking interface is fancy, if you don't have a savings account with them, then you'll be stuck like me. I had a card and wanted to make a payment using 'other bank account' but I couldn't find the link. After numerous searches and reloads did I realize that the "Pay Credit Card bill using other bank account" link exists on the Home Page only. So either you grab the opportunity of paying the bill without looking at the online statement or keep looking. If I have to describe the experience in one word, "uncomfortable" is the word that I would use.

3. Add-on card: Normally, if we have a primary card, say Card A and an add-on card, say Card B then we receive one bill containing transactions for both. StanC prefers to split the bills. It is acceptable, albeit not my style, because there would be lot of customers who would like it this way. However, I'm quite sure that customers won't prefer to pay for each of these cards separately. I mean, I have to make separate payment transactions for Cards A & B. Seriously?!

Since I was unaware of this, I made a total payment (Card A due + Card B due) against Card A (the primary card). And then I received the "statement" flashing a minimum amount due against the add-on card. My reaction? #Facepalm

4. Points redemption - Ah! The reason why I took this card. So when I took this card, I was told that I'd be granted Inner Circle membership if I didn't have one. In case I was an existing Inner Circle member, my membership would be linked to my card. Thus, I believed that all my points are going in my pocket. And then I was proved wrong. My credit card has been mapped against someone else's Inner Circle Membership number and both, StanC & Landmark Group are playing the Cong-BJP like blame game, i.e. StanC blames Landmark Group for the error and vice-versa. End result? I cannot redeem my points at a Landmark outlet.

But hang on, did I have points? Both Inner Circle and StanC follow a rolling policy, i.e. they lapse your points after a year. Let me explain this further. If I make a transaction on 15 Jan 2012 and get 100 points for the same, say, then on 16 Jan 2013, these 100 points will get lapsed and would automatically get deducted from my points balance.

My reaction? Thank God others don't follow this policy!

Since reporting about the wrong mapping of Inner Circle ID with credit card required numbers and other details to be quoted, I dropped both, StanC credit cards & Landmark Group an email. The auto-response of StanC is that the email will be responded to within 7 business days but I know that I won't get a response within that much time. Honestly, I don't even expect a response now. I'm so tired of all this that I want to pay my latest bills and get rid of this credit card. Also, I've stopped shopping at Lifestyle and want to get rid of their "Gold" membership too.

Whenever multinational companies invest in India, they cash in on the brand they have/build but they forget a critical factor - Customer Service. I, personally, consider the customer service of StanC and Inner Circle as BAD, primarily because I have seen the opposite end - Citi/HDFC and the Future Group. I'm sure people would've had their share of bad experiences with them too but till now, luckily, I haven't got an opportunity to rant about them.

The Goods:

Yes, everything has a good part and so do these guys. The online interface, in general, is nice (I hate to say this but the look & feel is better than Citi's interface).

Since this was my first co-branded retail card, I quite liked the entire concept of tying up with a retail major and offering membership & discounts, etc.

Lastly, I applaud their Sales team for being extremely quick & efficient.

PS - Separate blog post for Citi & HDFC to come up soon.