Curious Case of ICICI Bank Sending New Debit Card Unnecessarily

I got an email from ICICI bank saying my debit card was due for renewal and if I had any change in address, I should update using either net banking or by visiting nearest branch. I happened to recall that my debit card was not that old, and it should not be due for renewal. Hence, I checked my debit card physically and found that its validity lied 4 years ahead in future. Why should the bank send me a new card 4 years in advance? If there was a big technological change (e.g. when chip cards were introduced) or when big regulatory changes happen, it could be justified, but not now. 

I checked my email text and it had mentioned last 4 digits of my debit card and it did not match with my existing card. 

I logged into my net banking and went to debit card tab, and it displayed by debit card and its last 4 digits matched with the number mentioned in the email! It seemed the bank had already updated new card it planned to send with my customer ID. 

Hence, I called up the customer care number. The guy said he would verify and needs a few minutes. As the call went on a while and he put it on hold since it was taking time in his system to fetch data, I thought to re-verify my debit card number in my net-banking, just in case he asks any other info. And this time, I saw that the debit card number had changed and now it displayed my existing card number! 

As predicted, the customer care executive came back online and he said now that he could see that my existing card number was still mapped, and its validity was still remaining so I should ignore the email since the bank won't be sending me a new card.

I was shocked. How could debit card number change in my net-banking record, without someone doing something to update it? 

I thanked him and went back to ignore this episode. But not without a suspicion that most likely the bank was pushing some of its "costlier" debit card to me "forcefully" and since I called customer care and demanded answer, they abandoned their plan. I shall still be watchful if the same happens again in future. And you should too. 

- Rahul 

P.S.: I got a call from bank afterwards and the executive verified my details and upon learning that my existing debit card is Mastercard, he said the reason why the bank had tried to send new debit card was because I had Mastercard while the bank was now issuing Visa. Again, this explanation looked suspicious because as per recent direction from RBI, banks are expected to give choice of card-network to the customers. Hence, ideally, the bank should ask me if I wanted Mastercard/Visa/Rupay card and hence the explanation that the bank was sending me Visa card looked not credible. Also, his acceptance that the bank was sending me a new card was contrary to the initial feedback from customer care executive who denied any such attempt to send new card to me. Hope the governance of the bank is in safe hands and they are not doing some unethical business practices. 

Any Time Money (ATM)

In the classes of financial accounting, we learnt how to maintain journals and ledgers. The professor gave practical examples, but this art and science of commerce is not that easy, unless you are a B.Com. At one time, I used to keep an account of all my expenses; but I have been happy-go-lucky for a long time now. Now my sixth sense does the account balancing. But some disturbances happen in case of some unexpected events, like lending some money to friends. This is what I did yesterday. My sixth sense was not in guard it seems, therefore when I was returning back this evening; I got to find only a twenty rupee note and some coins with me. I paid my auto-rickshaw fare of Rs 18. (that was debit to expenses account and credit to cash account, if I show off some of my learning) Now some coins remained with me. In the financial capital of India, with only some COINS in my pocket at 10 PM! To have some fun, I purchased one ice cream from the road side vendor. Now I didn't find it motivating enough to count the remaining coins and show off my calculation skills. Did I feel insecure? Did I feel broke? No! Because I had that card in my pocket ' ATM card: apne account ka power!

The way ATMs have changed our attitude towards money is amazing. Ten years back, the fattest wallet was the richest; now that having maximum number of card holding slots is. Call it Automatic Teller Machine or Any Time Money, ATMs have made our lives easier. I remember once I had to borrow money from my bun-makkhan-wallah in Lucknow, because I went out of cash on a national holiday. Now, I just head towards the nearest ATM.

The location of the ATMs also speaks volumes about the quality of banking services of a particular bank. In Thane, I could find two SBI ATMs in my range of movement, one in the Bank building itself, and other in a very neglected building, in a very neglected corner of a very busy market. But the ICICI ATMs were almost everywhere, near Railway station, at the Anand theatre, and one at the entrance of the street leading to my apartment.

Private Banks have taken the experience of ATMs to such a distance, that we can hardly call them ATMs. Along with dispensing cash, the small corner room consists of cash and cheque deposit counter, complaints, requests and suggestion desks, phone banking centres, and many others that I don't use or know. Recently ICICI had started demand draft by phone facility. The philosophy is not only to save costs, but also to enhance the customer satisfaction and delight.

ATMs are just one aspect; the prospects of phone banking and internet banking are tremendous. But the penetration of such facilities is the point of concern. These are things of the future, but how long will it take to get to reach the aam adami?

One of our professors said that banks in the coming time will penalise those customers who go to the bank's brick-n-mortar branches. This would be a horrible situation. We have already fought the government's decision to extract a surcharge on cash withdrawals above a limit. Any step which leads to giving monopoly powers to banks is very bad. Any system should be able to protect the weakest of the customers. ATMs are nice, but the brick-n-mortar branches are equally important. Otherwise the invisible hand would get a bad face.

© Rahul