No small matter
I saw a reader complaint in Gulf News regarding the issue of unauthorised monthly bank charges and I want to share my experience with Emirates NBD.
For the past two years, my salary has been Dh2,600 and they did not deduct Dh25 for ‘relationship maintenance fee’, Since transferring to a new company in August, I receive my new monthly salary in the same account. However, they have started to deduct Dh25 every month from my account without my knowledge.
I went to Emirates NBD’s Deira City Centre branch and asked one staff member about how to reverse charges. He told me that I need to maintain Dh4,000 in my account. How is this possible, as when my salary was only Dh2,600 they did not deduct a single Fils? Now that my salary has increased to Dh3,500, why have they started deducting?
I know it’s only Dh25 for them but if you convert that to the local currency in my home country, it’s a big amount and we can buy a lot with it. In a year, it adds up to Dh300. Every single Fils is important. Please advise how I can stop this from happening.
From Ms Jelly Rose Cruz
Dubai
The management of Emirates NBD responds:
We are pleased to inform you that our Group Customer Experience team has been in touch with Ms Cruz with regards to the relationship maintenance fees that were applied to her account, and has settled the matter to her satisfaction.
In line with the bank’s schedule of service charges, which is available on Emirates NBD’s website, if a customer’s salary has not been credited for six months, the bank reserves the right to change the account from a salary variant to a savings variant and the fee for non-maintenance of the monthly balance will be applicable. As Ms Cruz’s salary account has not been credited with a salary for more than six months, her account was changed from a salary variant to a savings variant under the Classic package, hence causing the relationship maintenance charges to be applicable.
However, in value of Ms Cruz’s relationship with us, Emirates NBD has decided to partially waive the relationship maintenance fees as a service gesture. Ms Cruz has been requested to maintain a minimum monthly average relationship balance of Dh3,000 to avoid a charge of Dh25 per month (applicable for savings and salary variant). Furthermore, the bank has changed the account type from a savings variant to a salary variant as per Ms Cruz’s request.
We would like to thank you for your continued support and for providing us with the opportunity to resolve our customer’s issue.
Ms Cruz responds:
I would like to thank Gulf News for taking the time to solve this issue with Emirates NBD. I have already received 50 per cent of the relationship maintenance fee that they deducted from my account. I hope next time, this will not happen again.
(This complaint was sent to Gulf News on March 5. Process completed: March 17.)
Editor’s note: Do you have similar issues that you would like to raise with us? You can write to us at readers@gulfnews.com
