The IDBI bank has given in writing that they don’t know how the interest is being calculated or interest rate is charged in accounts. It is pinncle software who calculates for them. They even don’t know how much rate has been paid on Fixed deposit receipts which they are holding with them and close the accounts.

Canara Bank is the real culprit who has introduced the Pinnacle software into the banks and called other banks to install the Pinnacle software in their bank.
It is Canara Bank who are sitting on a minimum of Rs. 1,500 corores of rupees of their own staff’s loan accounts. Earning further interest on this fraudulent amount of Rs. 1,500 corores of rupee for the days to come till the date they refund entire amount of excessively collected by them.
Documentary evidences are there also.

Regards

Poddar
.

Apparently there’s a cash back scheme for the (calendar) months Oct, Nov and Dec that I mysteriously got subscribed to (I don’t remember doing it myself). The cashback (on amounts > 2000 INR authorised on ICICI slips only) varies between 1% and 100% depending (if I understood her correctly) on the sum total of all digits in the authorisation code for that transaction.

My points tally as on 18th Sep (date of statement generation)was 1795. For the period 19 Sep- 18 Oct, I earned 724 points for various expenses made on my card. These were credited into my a/c since the poor darlings “don’t want our customers to suffer any loss on our account”. So my total showing on the statement generated on 18th October was 2519.

However because of the brilliant cashback offer that our friends are running, I won cashbacks on 5 separate transactions (all either 1% or 2% cashbacks). So according to the rules of this scheme, all the points I earned on those transactions- in this case 592 points- are debited from my points tally. Clear so far? So my ACTUAL tally as of 18-Oct is not 2519 but 2519 – 592 = 1927.

My statement generated on 18-Nov will show me how many points I have earned in the period 19-Oct to 18-Nov. This is a batch operation run on the day your statement is generated, so if you check your interim statement (on Infinity net banking for example) the points earned are not updated. The opening balance in that statement would be not 2519 but 1927 plus the points I earned that cycle. However, in the NEXT statement after that, the opening balance again would be corrected for the points redeemed against cashbacks. Phew!

So you see it’s not the software’s fault but the bank’s Marketing team’s(and I am not just saying this cuz I used to work with the Finacle team!) They design all these high-falutin schemes and screw up royally in the execution. Firstly, I was never told that I was being subscribed to a scheme like this. Secondly, the accounting is plain wrong…the 592 should have showed up in “points redeemed” and NOT “points earned”, no matter when it is accounted for. Thirdly and most importantly, why run a scheme on a calendar separate from the billing calendar? Wouldn’t it be a lot more convenient and easy to calculate if the scheme runs for three cycles of billing in the broad period Oct-Dec (e.g. my scheme could run from Oct 19th- Jan 18th), while somebody with a billing date of 25th could have hers run from Oct 26th- Jan 25th and so on. (To complicate things, the cashbacks are all calculated by ICICI and credited on the 5th of the next month. So it results in inflated view of your points one month and reduction in the next, which is why a lot of people got upset in the first place.)

I heard the young lady out patiently and told her in no uncertain terms that this scheme has been designed by a moron (likely some birght-eyed bushytailed IIM-read facha, sadly) and that in all my years of dealing with banks and credit card companies I have never seen a more laughable example of a scheme gone awry. She tried to rebut this by saying that this scheme has met with an “unexpectedly overwhelming” response, which doesn’t affect me in the least because this is the first I am hearing of it. Then she attacks me instead, saying if I am not interested in the scheme, I should please send them an email to unsubscribe and get points instead of cashbacks. In my most gentle sarcastic tone I replied that since my opinions had not been sought when subscribing me to this scheme, would the bank really value it now, to get me off the same scheme? It’s your money, I went on relentlessly, do what you want with it. If you decide next month, for example, that you want to take away all my reward points, go right ahead, that’s your prerogative.

But I was fair- I told the young lady I had nothing against her personally- she was only doing her job (and doing it rather well I must add). But would she please bring to the attention of her managers that customers were unhappy with the way this scheme has been designed and executed. Perhaps in future such unpleasantness could be avoided by timely, effective communication and better systemic controls.

Personally, I think cashbacks in lieu of points is a great idea- which is why I didn’t unsubscribe from the offer even it was offered to me. But the way this particular scheme has been run makes me shudder. ICICI prides itself on being a technology-savvy, customer-centric bank. They should live up to that reputation instead of sullying it.

They do use Finnacle. I was with some ICICI compnay, so know that for sure.

Calling customer care/of emailing manager is of no use. They are dumb ass people.

All they would like to know is ‘Saar! Are you interested in personal loan’!!

I guess, one of the best banks is HSBC – they don’t really disturb me and service (so far) is good. But the irony is that they don’t offer too many services (like auto loans etc. have been withdrawn).

Citibank gifted me a year-long gift last year when, thanks to the back-office processing division (that I believe is built around the chaos theory but misses the point altogether), my auto loan ECS SIMPLY DID NOT HAPPEN for 8 months!! And each month, we reissued orders requesting (read: imploring) them to reinstate the facility.

Result = bad credit record with my salary account and auto loan financier (HDFC), penalities for late payment and check bounces, gadzillion tons of stress and endless driving to their full-to-overflowing branch on lazy Saturday mornings!!

And till the last month of this episode where i switched from Citi to Stan Chart, they still did not agree that the ECS instruction was NOT ACTIVE on my account while the money simply did not get released on the 5th of the month… sheeesh!

Being an end user, it doesn’t really matter to me whether the s/w works for the other bank or not – what I find funny is that this can be considered a DRASTIC mistake in US (and maybe liable for a lawsuit!) but is considered *okay* in India..(chalta hai!!)

And NO bank can calculate points = Previous – new! Not even ICICI

Sometimes the bank has some fineprint policies regarding reward points under cash back situations which need to be understood.