In fact these policies are combinations of insurance and investment where the customer ends up on losing on both side; lower insurance protection and lower return on investment.  ULIP’s on other hand is a tricky product which have lower insurance combined with market risk. Further banks are selling mutual fund products which are not in line with the risk profile, goal horizon   and proper asset allocation. The experience of reputed singer Mrs Kavita Krushnamurthy is a classic example of such mis-selling in which she lost heavily due to toxic products sold by HSBC Bank. High service Charges: Reserve Bank of India has deregulated service charges of banks from 1^st April 2015.Banks are charging various types of charges to customers which was not there earlier. Many such items are inappropriate for simple banking services. Some banks even charge merely for visiting the bank branch. Even ATM drawals in excess of five in a month attract Rs 20/- on each additional drawal. Credit card Fees: There are large number of complaints for levy of late payment fees on credit cards and this is rising. On non settlement of the disputed transactions and late fees, the Banks prefer to report as default to CIBIL which impact the credit score of the customers. Recently the RBI has mandated that banks cannot charge a late fee for the delay in payment of less than 3 days. High average quarterly balance: The Banks are monitoring the minimum and average balances strictly and any deviation is followed up with penalties. The Bank may or may not inform the customer the penalties debited to the account. The amount of minimum balance may be as high as 10,000/- . In many cases the Banks sou motu upgrade the status of the customer to “privilege” status which requires maintenance of higher minimum balances. Lack of transparency: RBI brings changes in policy with an aim to pass on the benefit to the ultimate consumer. But Banks are reluctant to pass on the benefit. One such example is repo rate i.e rate at which RBI lends to the Banks, has been reduced by 1.25% over a year by RBI but banks have passed only 0.60% to the customer. Many banks have CASA (Current account and Savings Bank) deposit of more than 40% of the total deposit but they do not give more than 4%interest on saving bank account and no interest in current account although RBI has liberalized the saving bank account rates. In case of home loans, many banks are yet to pass on the benefit of interest rate reduction to the customers. This is impacting the salaried class whose whole life is spent worrying about high home loan EMI’s. Technology: According to ET Wealth survey, one out of five PSU bank customers don’t find their bank technologically advanced enough. Customers have to face problems for online transactions due to frequent site breakdown, failed transactions, delayed re credits and non functional ATMs. What is the way out? The survey finding in ET wealth indicates that 52.9% of the customers are looking to change their Bank. But,  in our view that may not be a solution. The ideal way is to get ready to pay for the services, scrutinize your Bank statements regularly for any wrong debits and bring it to the notice of the Bank. In case the issue does not get resolved, it has to be escalated to Bank Ombudsman/Consumer court. Further it is better to avoid buying of insurance and Mutual Funds through the Banks. The better way is to take the advice from a fee only financial planner & SEBI Registered Investment Adviser and buy online Insurance plans and Direct Mutual Funds where there is no element of commission in the products.