Now that Citi bank india business is taken over by axis bank, it has almost become a nightmare for me to get onboarded to axis bank. I have now explored all the options given by axis bank to get onboarded but every option systematically failed as there is a clear difference between what they have written in the process and what they are actually doing. Here I am going to share my personal experience so that you will get a clear idea of what I am talking about.
Before explaining further, let me first introduce my scenario. I am having salary account in Citi Bank and a saving account in Axis bank. In both the banks, I have registered the same phone number and email id. So after the merged, I have been notified to updated my IFSC code to new Axis branch IFSC code which I did. Now that I am getting a notification that Citi IFSC code will stop working from 5th July and Citi netbanking portal for india customers would stop working from 15th July, I thought to register in Axis bank for netbanking.
Worst Onboarding of Citi India user in Axis Bank [My Personal Experience]
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When I tried registering to Axis bank, I followed different methods provided by the bank to register. All of them seems to have failed as of now. Let’s see what are those.
1. Tried through Internet Banking
If you visit axis bank official page and check the steps written to register on Axis Bank Internet Banking then it would be mentioned something like below.
If you visit their netbanking page then according to step 2, there should be a tab/option for Citibank users but in reality there is no such option exists as you can see below.
I tried to register as well to login from Citi bank debit card but that also did not worked out as it was not detecting my Citi bank debit card.
2. Tried through Mobile Banking
Another option given is through mobile banking. I downloaded open app from play store and tried login as mentioned in step 2. But once I gave my registered mobile number, it logged in to my existing axis bank account instead of Citi bank account. As the given registered mobile number is same on both the accounts, probably that’s why it only recognizing my axis bank account with that number. I didn’t found any other way to login to my Citi bank account from here as well.
3. Tried calling customer care
After exploring both Internet Banking and Mobile Banking option, I decided to call customer care toll free number 1800 103 5577 but all I got from other side is just some automated voice response. I never got an opportunity to talk to a customer representative or support person. All the time it was asking to verify myself by giving the registered mobile number. Once i given, it only recognized my existing axis bank account, no where mentioned about my Citi bank account.
4. Visited Axis Branch
I had also visited my nearby axis bank branch and asked about the process to register to internet banking for Citi Bank Users. They repeated the same thing whatever is written on Axis bank official website. When I showed them there is no such option given then I have been told that may be the changes is yet to be done. So they were also not sure about that. This is not the first time I was getting this kind of answer from Axis bank staff. Probably they are the least informed and barely knows the recent changes done by the bank.
Conclusion
Anyhow after suffering this much for a small work, I finally got frustrated and decided to close my bank account in Axis Bank as I am quite certain they are going to create problem in future as well. I wonder why they are so much popular when on ground their service is much worst. I hope RBI is looking into all these and does regular audit to understand if they are indeed delivering what has been promised to customers after purchasing Citi bank retail India business.