HDFC Bank has this facility to create a certain type of Fixed Deposit that protects you against your cheques being dishonoured. If you have this type of FD, funds will automatically be “swept-in” into the savings account from the FD whenever needed. The balance of the FD will continue to earn the original rate of interest, while the amount that was swept in will be treated as if it was in a savings account. In ICICI Bank, there is a facility where if you have excess money in your savings account, it will be automatically swept out and be made an FD. HDFC, however, makes it as difficult as possible to create this type of FD. You can create normal FDs through netbanking, but not ones with the sweep-in facility. For this, you have to visit the branch or call up their phone banking. Rather interesting way to “match” ICICI’s offering without increasing your cost of funds.
Dogbert
Dogbert Takes Over Citibank Marketing
Neel has a good post on how ICICI has made life difficult for customers who want to redeem reward points on their credit cards. Citibank has done something similar. They have cut down on the number of items you can get by redeeming reward points. To hide this fact from customers, they have “redesigned” their website. Now, they no longer display any sort of catalogue. They show this page. You are supposed to choose your card type from the dropdown and also whether you want to go high-bandwidth or low. Then they take you to an incomprehensible page that provides you with absolutely no clue as to what gift you can find where. To complete the insult, they say the following at the bottom of the page:
Simply looking for items to redeem? Chances are, you want something a little different, something more. CitiRewards aim to do just that: to take you from plain rewards and introduce you to all the experiences possible with them. After all, rewards are good. Ideas make them brilliant.