a_f_d

Are you opening another a/c?

AndyD 8-)₹

iain492001

Not at the moment, as I'm leaving on Monday for a while, and will need to get a new visa in September..

Cheers
Iain

msj5

Congratulations.

hemingway

Well done. Good to know that if they don't repatriate anyone's funds in the meantime, that when you anyone is next in Goa, they can go to Axis Bank & get their own money back - how jolly decent. . . . . . . . . . .

H.

a_f_d

RBI Complaints Procedure

AndyD 8-)₹

babu1

ICICI sent me a KYC request email on 21st Sept. The RBI have imposed a 15 day deadline to submit your documents. I am in UK at the moment and can't meet the deadline so assume this account will be automatically frozen too. I have more money there than Axis which is still frozen and not returned.

I have contacted ICICI through their internal online mail about my predicament, even though the site is usually down, crashes or times out before you can compose and send a reply.

After asking for an extension till I am in India end of next month approx, and not to freeze my account, I got a generic reply which restated the RBI guidelines for required and acceptable documents and the 15 day deadline.

I was also given a Head Office postal address to which to courier my documents (which are in India!).

Their site is having technical log in problems today though I am trying to contact them again. My branch is Mapusa. This is best dealt with face to face with the branch manager, which I've explained.

What to do?

a_f_d

Well as I've posted elsewhere there is no justification in the RBI regulations for closing foreigners' NRO accounts, but there definitely is justification for wanting KYC - it should have been done years ago. but if the bank didn't ask you to do it that is their fault.
If you don't need money from the account before you get to Goa then leave it till then, if there are bills that should be paid before you get there then you could try to pay them online in the 15 days before the account is frozen.

hth AndyD 8-)₹

prestonjohn

The Hindu....June 29th 2013. India has to repay $172 billion by March 2014 due to America drawing back money ie, quantitative easing.There used to be sign next to the ferry terminal in Panjim that warned people about Easing Them Selves on the beach but i dont think it has anything to do with that.This re-payment represents 60% of India's forex reserves.This might explain why RBI are attempting to claw back or stop the outflow of capital from India.Its quite a long and detailed article, too long for me to go into here but pop the above into Google and read it.

babu1

This is a resident account funded entirely by forex transferred online into India with the only intention of spending it in India.

Freezing it only causes aggravation and is going to push foreigners further into a cash economy only exchanging with shop money changers where the RBI certainly won't Know Your Customer (on either side of the transaction, Authorised Dealer or not).

I was in my local ICICI branch as recent as late July arranging a new compliant cheque book and sorting out some internet log in password problems. It would have been good customer service to anticipate this and update my KYC at the same time.

My only alternative might be to set up a transfer to someone trustworthy with an ICICI account and collect from them on arrival. To set up a transfer recipient, never mind do the actual transfer, they have to send you unique Codes to your registered sim. Yes, that's the one which is probably automatically made inactive since I left India!

FFS!!! I only want a hassle free life.

hemingway

I entirely agree with your 1st point & it's exactly what I will do - change money with whoever gives me the best rate.

What about ICICI Rupee travel cards that you can load with Rs50,000 each - that's got to be worth a go.

H.

P.S. - a_f_d, was the change of colour of your ₹ symbol with every post on the electricity bill thread yesterday 'automatic' OR were you just really bored & changed it manually with every post?

a_f_d

Usually greybeard seems right, occasionally the topic seems to call for a more red reaction.... <g>

AndyD 8-)₹

P.S. Babu - by all reports your money will still be there and if your KYC is OK the account should be unfrozen.
Unbelievable that they should do this just when they're desperate for forex!

bakedbean

Ooweee that's a lot of dosh to find to pay back in March. Is this going to be another Cyprus situation? I hope not

hemingway

I reckon the scale of the Indian economy (1.1 BILLION people!) makes anything that Cyprus does look like the preverbial drop in the ocean - e.g. India imports 180 MILLION dollar's worth of oil PER DAY!

H.