Here's the saga of me opening 5-6 new accounts in a week.
My primary aim was to move investments from Jupiter to a safe bank and also wanted to hide accs from my house because they'll object to investing in MF or stocks (I didn't move to my pre-existing HDFC a/c because my family is already aware of that a/c)
I did an extensive research on bank accounts on Twitter / Technofino. Came to the conclusion that first of all you can't trust portal like Twitter where users only post complaints and secondly what might be best for me might not be best for someone else. Then,
First of all Technofino helped me zero down my decision on opening a new SB account in an govt psu. If I hadn't researched on TF then I'd have opened an SB accounts in UBI but instead I opened in BoB and I've absolutely no complaints. Infact BoB's app is AWESOME! Account opening was a breeze. It's located in the biggest market of my city and yet I always found it to be less crowded (I've visited the branch twice or thrice already). This branch is surrounded by almost every single bank I can think of right from SBI to AU to HDFC to Dhanlakshmi etc. Anyways, BoB's app is awesome (miles ahead than HDFC) BUT netbanking is a shitshow.
Then I also thought to open an SBI account. Filled info on YONO but unfortunately chose digital SB a/c. Then YONO gave me a reference code and asked me to get eKYC done physically at the branch. I visited the branch (just adjacent to the BoB branch I talked about above xD) and guess what, the employee frickin tried to mis-sell me xD. He told me that it's mandatory to buy an insurance as well as an demat account alongwith the SB a/c. I knew that he's tryna scam me but due to my calm behavior, I told him 'alright' and skipped the branch and visited another branch nearby. I'm in process of getting the a/c opened in SBI.
Then I wanted another account in an PVT. bank due which I visited 3 ICICI's branches in my area and they all outright declined to open a regular SB account and instead told me that they can only open 1L MAB // Initial funding SB account. I complained about it on Twitter and twitter support connected me with branch manager and in an instant the branch manager asked me whether I'd like to open new account at the convenience of my home or by visiting the branch but It was too late by then.
Then I applied for digital account opening in YES Bank(10k mab), IDFC First(10k mab), IndusInd (zero bal) and Union Bank. I don't know but I think I've an compulsive personality disorder? xD I'm prone to making compulsive decisions.
It was all a breeze for the Private players. YES Bank's VKYC wouldn't proceed ahead on Sunday but IDFC and Indus's VKYC happened almost instantly. IDFC account opened almost in 10 minutes while I received the details of Indus but I couldn't access anything on Indus's app or website strangely. As you may expect, without any frickin transaction apart from initital funding my Indus account was put under debit freeze 😀 (It's an L for my impulsive personality). IDFC's app initially showed me a KYC freeze or sumn like that but it disappeared after a while.
Then came Monday, I went to the Indus branch and they did my KYC over there and told me that things will take 4-5 days to resolve. Went to IDFC's branch just to be sure and strangely the women employee over there linked all my bank accounts without my consent when I handed over my phone to her just to look at the account details. I didn't like this disrespect honestly and complained of the same on twitter. Meanwhile, received a call from Yes Bank, did VKYC, transferred funds and I was told to wait for a while to receive debit card details.
I received debit card details for my yes bank account today and I must say, I found Yes Bank's IRIS UI/UX WAY better than any mobile banking app I've used except that of Jupiter. Attention to details in IRIS is far better than IDFC or IndusMobile or iMobile etc! SMS's are also wayy instant in the case of Yes Bank. Yes Bank right from the beginning appealed the most to me. It's website, font selection, app UI/UX, branch interiors etc all looked really pleasant I must admit. And I also checked bank's financials and balance sheet before going ahead.
In midst of all, I also had applied for UBI right, unfortunately my account was created but I couldn't proceed with VKYC and hence after repeated attempts I visited the branch and asked the staff whether it's possible to do KYC through branch and they agreed and gave me a plethora of forms. UBI's really really outdated in comparison to BoB or SBI. I saw one of the systems in UBI and it's software interface is just so frickin old school (thanks to infosys). The only reason I'm going ahead with UBI is because my a/c is half created already. I've a/c number and other details already, it'd be better for me to complete the a/c rather then closing it.
So let me summarize, I have 8 accounts presently.
- HDFC: The primary account since 3 years. Absolutely no problem whatsoever. Quick service but horrible UI/UX on both mobile and web.
- Jupiter: Used to be my secondary account and I was consistently transacting huge amounts in and out before I read about account freezes and that was the trigger point for my new account opening spree that I described above. Now I use Jupiter as my mutual fund investment platform. It's really smooth and user friendly. Btw I've had done way stupid things on jupiter in the past and fortunately my account was never frozen (touchwood). I've also linked my MF's PF's to another bank just to be safe and sure.
- BoB: Just opened, will use for NPS, PPF and other govt related schemes. Also if not HDFC then BoB for larger funds.
- UBI: Bass khul gya xD, will see what will I do with it.
- YES: Just opened. Lovely UI/UX, onboarding. Will see and monitor the performance/services and in future might make it my primary. Might use it for CC Payments.
- IndusInd: Zero Bal account. Opened just for the case of a backup account. Will use it for UPI transactions (riskier ones).
- IDFC: Once again, no need as such, might use it for UPI payments or might close it within this month.
- SBI: Once again, thank you compulsive behavior xD
Btw please do recommend me points I might be missing.
