banks in India do anything/promise anything to get business....real fun starts after few months....when they start to fall back on the promises made initially....
So recently I took a day off and visited all banks with a defined purpose.
I targeted their HNI accounts with affluent RMs.
Here is my pitch. "I currently hold Indus Select Account with Legend CC (Limit 1.05 L) and have committed FD funds at 15 L distributed across 3 members (per PAN 5 L) for DICGC benefit. I would like to access your HNI Savings Programmes and some pre approved CCs considering my family's excellent credit history, significant net worth in Post Office and a habit of timely payments, low credit utilisation etc. along with transferring all of my 15 L from Indus to them."
"What I want - I need dedicated customer care for my issues with respect to raising a seamless dispute or chargeback submitting all relevant documents physically/by mail to branch. The branch will take up the case and vouch to reimburse my funds in case of genuine dispute and follow up with back end Cust Care. I will have a single point of contact for this."
"Do any other online methods like UPI, IMPS, NEFT, Net Banking have such consumer protection laws and features like a Credit Card payment?"
"The bank that vows to provide dedicated Cust Ser in this respect can have my forever committed 15 L in FDs, since I have a side hustle of collecting rare jwellery, ordering internationally through eBay vendors, national wholesale vendors, alibaba, Sunsky etc. and 3 out of 10 purchases generally go sideways."
I will post the response I recieved regarding this query at numerous banks in discussion below 😎
+1 for Amex, they have the most straightforward chargeback process of all cards
Going with chargeback for non-CC mechanisms is a bad idea - with NEFT/UPI/etc, this is your money which bank has to get back. With CC, this is bank's money they have to get back (as it is a loan to you), bank generally moves a lot faster.
For CC, would recommend Amex as they have a track record of being customer friendly (especially out of India, but works decently in India too). Go with Plat charge, they have good limits (shadow limit of 40-50L easily based on ITR/spending patterns)
For bank issued CC, experience may vary - have heard some cases where they respond very quickly and positively, and some where they drag their feet a lot and ask for every possible document.
If you're targeting HNI RMs, also consider increasing TRV (FDs of few CR/loan of 3/4CR, or using bank demat account), as most entry/mid level program RMs (ICICI Wealth/HDFC Preferred) are completely useless
And this is why it is very essential that your family should possess atleast one account in some private bank which is semi-premium / HNI. Along with that you should have a semi - premium Credit Card, preferably Amex, Visa (Signature/Infinite variant, not platinum)
Treat this combo as your spending account.
Disburse FD's across 2 family members 5-5 L each. Or take a loan / insurance / explore other eligibility options for that program. Heavily bargain while opening. Open in single shot by IP funding rather than to go the route of Account upgrades.