Well, we were wrong. 
Just when you think you have the correct account with the correct bank — they hit you hard. 
It was on 25th March when we had sent our application for the Citibank NRI Account. Prior to that we had been speaking to a Customer Representative (Priya) many times in regards to how long it takes for the account to be open, how to deposit money etc… She had said that it will not take more than 10 business days for the account to be open.
Its now 18th April and still we have no information on the account. 
Neeraj has called their Customer Service for NRI Accounts, and they say stuff like “please call back on Tuesday” or “we don’t have any information”, blah blah blah. What’s the point of having a Customer Service telephone service if you are not able to do anything???? 
Everyone is sitting in India, and they say that we cannot help you today, you have to call back. We have tried to email them to receive a status, but in vain.
Really, its been a disappointing experience — and we haven’t even opened the account yet 
When Neeraj called the Customer Service today, the lady mentioned that she has requested for the account to be opened in “priority” (whatever that means in India ), and that in the max 48 hours we will have an account. Neeraj requested to speak the manager but she said that she is the supervisor, and there is no other information she has regarding our account.
You have to give an initial deposit with the application. So Neeraj also had sent a check — do you know when that was deposited? 6 days after we had sent the application, but no one can tell us where that was deposited or the account number or any information at all. How can they not know where the money was deposited????
With going to India just around the corner, it is going to be a time crunch for us. We have to wait until the account gets open (which will take atleast 48 hours) and then another 3 days in order for our money to be deposited into our account. So its going to take us down to the wire, aargh, how frustrating. 
Interesting enough, this blog entry talked about how ICICI didn’t have good customer service, but really, Citibank isn’t better either. 
We have sent an email to their Customer Service, to Priya, and the Product Manager — let’s see what happens in the next day or two.
Alvida. Jai Mata Di.
sorry to hear its been this tough with Citibank.
My experience wasnt too different..as I mentioned to you earlier. Will reply to your email soon.
Hi Poonam, Nice layout.
My papa had very bad experience with Citibank credit card too. We have depostied Rs. 10K but didnt get credit into their account. We have written so many letters, correspondance but there was no response. They kept on sending the bill for Rs. 10K and included the late fee also on that. We have surrendered the card and still we receive the calls from customer care boys who dont even know the history. They just make the call as been told by bank. Its pathetic.
Hmmm… really sad… another private bank.. deliverying bad service… :???:
Ya Ashwin — you were right. It has been tough.
Nice to see your comment Nidhi.
That really is pathetic — I don’t know why these big banks cause so many issues. 
Do they not care about their customers at all??? 
I know it Ankur.
Its very sad and disappointing. 
oh im having a lotta problems with my bank a/c’s, mobile phone a/c’s, girl a/c’s :P
ohh.. thts so sad.. hope u’d have got it by today.. cos tht 48hr time limit is gone..
Dont know about Citibank…but know that ICICI is pretty awful where service is concerned!
You are right Prasad, Neeraj did hear from them. The account has been opened but now we have wait to get the Internet Password in the postal mail in order to put money into the account — who knows how long that will take.
You are right Deepak, ICICI isn’t that good, but Citibank isn’t either.
Its getting tougher to find a good bank for back home. 
I am using ICICI NRI services from past 9 months..everything is OK uptill now as far customer serive is concerned may be they have different service consideration for NRI’s..they usually assign eRM to individual NRI customer for their customer service.
Oh that’s good Neeraj Kushwaha that you haven’t had any problems with ICICI but just have heard really bad things about their service but Citibank hasn’t been up to par either.
Citinri sucks……
Problems
1)Delay in Opening account.
2)Closing Indian Citibank account without informing
3)Worst exchange rate. Their customer representatives say that citibank does not charge anything for conversion… but I read this on their webpage
Preety bad did not read it while opening the account with them
“Any conversion from one currency to another shall be at the rate of conversion as applicable and determined by the bank as on the transaction date. Citibank’s conversion rate for both incoming and outgoing transfers denominated in a foreign currency includes a commission for the conversion service”
They eat our money while converting
Citibank sucks
Citi NRi is pathetic,
I read about the bad experiences you faced. But I have an opposite story to say. I had rather very pleasant experience with Citibank. They opened my NRI account within 5 days and I had my transfers done very fast.
Hi All,
I was so frustrated with Citibank’s oversea Customer Service dept in India. From now on I will never seek help from Citibank’s CS Dept again! Everytime I called them to request a banking transaction, they are so overly polite to the point of anoyance stupidity, and after all the waits and waits, listening to their appologies and promises, none of my banking requests have ever carried out!!!! I finally had to go to the branch to have it done with a live person. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! But there is no need to get mad at them. That’s the way they are. I no longer expect any good thing from them, just as I don’t expect pigs to fly.
Tim
The issue here I feel is customer care being outsourced than the service. I quite empathize with those customer care chaps. They try giving their best while a customer calls. And we must understand that they are the one who face customer’s fury always. As you yourself said, they are yet polite. You must appreciate it. When I called citi customer care previously for clearing certain issues, I was told that it would be resolved within 2 working days. And I was surprised to find that issue being rectified! I really appreciate their efforts.
Even I agree with Mr. Amit, I have been with citi’s NRI banking for last two years. I never had a problem till now. Their money transfer is really good with easy access to my family in India. Few months back, when there was a delay n one of my regular money transfers to India, their customer care quickly solved that.
Citi NRI really sucks in all way.
we have the bad experince and still going on—–
we told them to send a draft of $5000.00 to our home address in connecticut and we didint receive it the draft and they sent a indemnity form to fill out and the same has been filled out by me and received by them on aug.
still the amount hasnt been vredited in to my account.
i dont know what step i should take but i keep sending mail daily but no reply at all.
the staffs sitting over there really sucks.
Only i could see a song and dance from them.
CITIBANK NRI SERVICES ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! DO NOT BANK WITH CITIBANK.
First, when I opened my NRE and NRO accounts, they messed up on my opening account package. I ended up having to go back to Citibank MG Road Bangalore 7 times to finnally get my package. Each time something was missing, i.e. atm card, pin number, cheque book, etc.
I opened the accout ONLY for the draft service they advertise. They say that they can deliver a draft any where in india, 48 hours for most major cities.
LIE, LIE, LIE.
They don’t. The reality is that I called up 3 different times to have emergency money sent to my relatives. Each time it took OVER ONE MONTH to get the money to my family members, an average of 15 calls to Citibank’s customer service (US has a 1-800 number that goes to a call center in Chennai).
Each time the draft goes to a courier service. Each time the courier service deliveres it 2 weeks later — they say that they couldn’t locate the address. They didn’t bother calling the beneficiary, and there is no way even a mentally retarted person could not find the address.
So each time I had to have it resent. Then that takes a whole bunch of phone calls. Everyone at the customer serice area is USELESS and a bunch of liars.
Supposedly, the manager is Mr. Khalit. I spent over a month trying to call him, but he is never there. No matter how much I push to talk to him or complain to him, I was never able to speak to him.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE A CITIBANK ACCOUNT, DON’T OPEN ONE.
IF YOU DO HAVE A CITIBANK ACCOUNT, CLOSE IT. You will be very sorry if you have to do business with them.
It is unbelieable that an international bank can give the most horrible service in India. I have no idea how they can hire such an incompetent call center.
Just the fact that Citibank uses their call center +1 800 248 4674, is enough reason NOT TO USE CITIBANK. That is the most piece of #@$ call center that exist anywhere in the world. They all lie, no one knows what the other is doing, they are rude, and they really refuse to actually provide any service or make phone calls, or do ANYTHING. useless idiots.
Just my thoughts.
And more further they force you to withdraw complaints by calling your friends.
CITINRI Service seems to be dangerous evil.
Their exchange rates just cheat us. And you will never get a right response for your questions.
So, i decided to close these accounts, or never use them. ICICI seems to be far better.
They should quote is
‘CITI nevers sleeps … and steals other when they are asleep’
I have had a terrible experience with CitiBank. First they would not let me link my US bank account to my NRI account because earlier it was linked to my sister’s NRI account. She closed her Citi account over 2 years ago but still I cannot link my US account to my Citi NRI account.
Getting fed up with their online system and all the things it could not do, I deposited a check in one of their Delhi branches. It has been over a month and there is no sight of my money being transferred.
CitiBank is bar none the worst company I have dealt with. I have had better dealings with Indian govt. banks than Citi. They are too big and should be broken up under anti trust law.
Do some more research and open with some other banks whose customer service is good. For CItibankNRI service everything goes to india so if you make a call it will go to Indian Call center and trust me these ppl make your life HELL when you talk to them …i would say almost all of them have EGO/ATTITUDE and they talk too much and will not listen to you they will interupt you while you are talking …also they will yell at you as well.
“ITS now more than a month when I requested PIN # for my Mandatee in india, these idiots sent it to my US address. Now they want me to write a letter to them requesting a PIN. My question is how come writing a letter will be more secure than talking over a phone and putting your TPIN and answering all question what they ask is more secure. This is all BS. these ppl in the name of security making it so frustrating..seems like they have overwhelming customers and they are NOT ABLE TO HANDLE them properly.
I am looking for alternatives if anyone knows some other good banks please pose it here.
I wanted to open a citi bank NRI account but after reading this I think I won’t open it.
!!! CITINRI SERVICES – SUCKS LIKE NO OTHER ON THE ON PLANET !!!
Well to be honest this sis one of the worst bank and services and I have ever come across in my whole life…well read the below reasons and decide for yourself…
1.Just to open an account with your money you have to struggle so much…and why can’t they have a simpler system and there are lot of banks do…..but for this….you have to provide so manyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy details after all this people are working there screw up so badly….and takes such a long time….
2.Think about the exchange rate what they provide….lowest of any one…also out right they steel your money in the name of conversion….
3.I don’t even have any words to describe their customer service….hoe bad they suck……….those stupid dumb ass idiots….I’m not really sure they are all educated or school dropouts….or do they have any manners….those SOB should understand that they get paid by our money….and they are there to work for us….and I hate their verification system where you have to give all your info….as you all know …..these dumbest idiots….are selling out the information to outside people/you can this all over the news…and they don’t realize how valuable the information is and they have access to all ours when we have an account…..so is it really not worth to have an account with citinri account…..you decide…..and think twice or thrice….but don’t open one ……not useful at alll…..don’t get fooled by their ads…..or draft service….you can even spend few $’s to send money…it’s fine….but loosing your information…..you know how valuable it is….especially if you are living in US you know very well ….if something goes wrong on your credit history….or if something goes wrong with your fiancés…how much times and effort it will take to fix….so it’s really not worth at all……to even just try them…..
Well my experience with citibank was not good either, i live in sydney have a citibank transaction account.I processed transfer of money to icci account in india paying a service charge of 25$, the cusotmerservice person informed me that no other charge will be taken apart from 25$ but this was not the case the amount deposited was less by 2K (80$) when i enquried the bank they asked me to check with the icicibank , icici bank india informed me that they dont take any commision so when i asked citibank again they come with new information saying citibank india took the service charge of nearly 2000rs which realy put me off………………. guys check well beforeyou transfer they dont show you the rule and regulation when you do the transfer but when u go to them with issue they will show the paper which you wont have read .Citibank really suckssssssssssss
I used citinri. It has worked ok for me. I sent in my application, but it got created after 45 days, although the initial deposit was withdrawn in 5 days. I used their EFT from US bank to Citi a/c, again the money was withdrawn in 2 days but was not traceable ( I am on the 7th day).
Citibank is really bad!
To be honest with you, I won’t like to write bad about anything until now, but I’ve decided to share my experience with you. I opened my account 5yrs ago and I quickly realised that they are really bad in terms of giving conversion rates. So, I decided to stop using my account, I’m using some other service to send my money, after I switch to other one, I never got to rethink of switching to something else. Other bad thing about Citibank is their website, which is just horrible, which was another reason of not using their services. I never closed citibank account until now because of the reason I could send money quickly in two days, if I really wanted (that is my assumption never used it). Finally, decided to close my account and I requested through written form, it got rejected first time saying that signature doesn’t match. Second time I have enclosed my passport copies along with closure letter. This time they closed my account but didn’t send my balance amount to my India address. I called them several times until now and waiting still to see whether they can update me the status what happened to the draft they claim it to be sent already. Just horrible experience…I recommend anyone NO to citibank.
I have also had very very bad and shamefulexperiences of services of CITI BANK Credit Cards.
I advise all others, not to become a CITI BANK Credit Card holder…..
I was planning to open CITI BANK NRI account after reading that I will not open. Are there any better bank for US based NRI account
Hi all
I had not read all comments. But my experiance says that it takes time to open a account. We should understand that we are opening a account in India and so it needs all theses paper and procedure, (Indian Style). But once account is open is should work very smooth. I had similar problems when I opened NRI account with ICICI but once it is opened, I works fine. Good Luck !!
WORST, WORST WORST. never never never suggest them to anybody.
:???: oops…after reading so many painful and frustrating experiences..i am not thinking again to open an account with Citibank or not..thanks folks for sharing …
Well I am going through a similar scenario to most of the member in this board. I wish I had read it prior to making a decision.
Last year tried to call the Citi bank branch in Toronto and always an answering machine comes on, attempted to leave voice message and get “The voice box is full” answer.
Decided not to deal with a guy, who can’t even clear his voice mail box.
End of December went to India for a short trip.
Walked into Citibank Cochin branch. Listened to the guy of how great this branch is, filled up few forms, guided me to another person, same story, big sales pitches, filled some more forms. Informed me, I would get my account details in my Canadian address within 10-15 days time. Believed the guy, came back to Canada waited for a month, two months. No Documents.
Thought of calling them, went online, got their website, hmmmmmm no phone numbers.
Got their CS number from this discussion thread. Called them, narrated my pathetic situation. He took my information, put me on hold for five mins and give me the news.
“Sorry we dont have your information in our system”.
Now what?
Please send us another application.
Really! Another application! No I am not sending another application. First let me know what happened to my application.
Well, sir, I dont know. I will send Cochin branch an email. But I cant promise you any thing.
Can I have the Cochin branch number?
Sorry sir we dont have their number. I have only their postal address.
(haaaaaa India is developed country)
Well, ultimately I had to finish the conversation, because it is not taking me any where. Just making my long distance provider happy.
If I can reverse the scenario, I would never attempt to deal with these guys.
My frustration and helplessness flows through these words.
A big NO to Citibank India.
hi friends,
going through so many comment i am really confused.pls let me which is the better one for NRE a/c
Well if you think your experience with Citibank was worst than let me thell you that ICICI is not far behind in this matter. I’ve couple of accounts with ICICI and from time to time they keep screwing with my remittances being sent from US to India. Their customer service is horrible. For people in US it seems there are not many alternatives.
Well, i do have an account and long suffering because of it. I have been trying to talk to somebody since 10 am this morning (and now it is 2pm). Either their phone system disconnects while transfering my call, or the overly polite but stupid “citibank officers” don’t know or want to help anymore beyond their script.
What is so surprising is why is their US service is far superior to their Indian service? Why can’t they bring the world famous american style customer service to their Indian operation?
CitiNRI provides ‘THE WORST’ service ever. You have good options now with ICICI and other… do not go with citinri.
I have been sending money on regular basis for past 3 yrs. had some monior glitches most of the time, but I never paid too much attention as it was never urgent/critical for me.
When it was “REALLY” urgent and critical – BAAM! citinri services HAD TO fail… it’s been more than 10 days about 15 hrs on the phones and the funds are NO WHERE LOCATED!!! normally it takes 3 -5 days and it’s fine.
I think there is MAJOR security breach and they have lost lot of account info. hacked. They will not give the right info. and just give you tons of other numbers to call.
I am not finished.. I needed more space to continuing from prev. comments…
So – after talking to 15 ppl from the Chennai call center. They could not help. There is ONLY floor supervisor allowed to talk on a escalated issue. there is NO manager on top of them… they call the shots and you can’t do ANYTHING!!! they bully the clients and don’t care at all. I was furious, mad and highly frustrated… but nothing.
I have requested a transcript of my call and will distribute to the news channels and all the blogs as appropriate.
PLEASE email me if you need to see the details. HELP!!! to stop this – it is absolutely unacceptable. I WILL close the a/c and take my business somewhere else!
After reading this post and responses Im regreting that Ive just sent the application pack for opening the citibank account. I got lured into opening as they promised me a free debit card (on international withdrawls) and in India. Also they said I would get free international transfers from my account in the London branch. I hope things go smoothly but I feel I should have stuck to HSBC which is bigger in the UK.
I am trying to contact citi bank and I am not able to find out their NRI customare care number even.
the worst part is they ask to put the detail and they will call back and unfortunately it does not let you put your ccorrect detail.
they ask yuor country detail , when you say UK then you need to type ZIP code. they flipin do not know that there is no ZIP code in UK. they have post code. If you try post code of UK it does not accept.
night mare. I call ed india helpdesk from here and inform them that I cannot enter the detail for call back. they said they will take care but…. its citi bank man..
Rajesh,
in any case i wouldnt like to enter my address or post code on any marketing or commercial website anyway and citi being an American company their online data protection policies arent as strict as the EU/UK. The initial address & contact details are just for their operator to prepare their sales pitch. Make sure you give them the correct telephone number with country code for them to call you. I was called by a friendly sikh called Harpal Singh who opened my account and assisted me with the form. Im waiting for the ATM card/PIN and cheque book now, its been about 10 business days. They’ve returned my original documents back and debited the cheque from me too. Im keeping the faith so far. :???:
I had a similar issue while trying to enter a UK postcode in US zip code field, all you do is enter some fictious zip code (5 digits)