I am a software engineer working for Satyam. I woke up today morning to the beep of an SMS from my banker ICICI Bank saying “Your credit limit on card no. XXXXYYYY is reduced to INR ***** and cash withdrawal limit is reduced to INR 0.00 with immediate effect”… WOW!!! The first blow of the crisis came from my bank.
A kind of immense anger rolled up in my head. This is the bank that used to wake me up at 8’O clock on Saturday mornings, offering credit card loans, while I was enjoying a sound weekend sleep, ICICI: “Good morning sir, I am calling from ICICI credit card department. Are you interested in our gold credit card sir?” Me: “#$%^&*! Go to hell, let me sleep…”; These are the guys who used to bug me in office hours offering personal loans. The guys who used to spam my phone with sales calls which constituted about 30 ~ 40% of the total calls I used to receive. Why should I say more, I too fell for them. I took their credit card, personal loan and my salary account is also in that bank. Everything was going kind of okay, till this morning, till I got this SMS.
On a second thought, (I tried to calm down, relax, tried all the EQ management tactics I learned from my employer), may be I shouldn’t be angry at them. Because when a bank gives a credit card or a loan, it takes a look at the credit history of its customer. I joined Satyam as a fresher and I got all these ‘products’ from the bank even before I completed one year in my company. So the bank might have issued this credit card looking at the credit history of my employer and not mine, because I didn’t have any credit history. So I cannot blame them for their decision because my employer just collapsed and there is a high risk factor in lending me money. But they conveniently forgot the fact, that I was, and I am a good customer. I pay my EMIs on time (technically they take it from my account without waiting for my permission) and I pay my credit bills on time (not sure if this is a sign of a ‘good customer’).
Well, things happen and they teach us good lessons. And the next time when I will have to choose a banker, I will choose one who looks at my credit history instead of my employer’s; who trust me than my employer. Beware ICICI bank… Your customers are getting smarter!
