Unwanted charges

I have an Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) credit card and savings account. In February, I used my EIB credit card for an electronic purchase. I converted the transaction into six-month, interest-free installments.

In April, I called up to check with their call centre if auto debit is activated for payment of the credit card’s outstanding amount. The call centre agent confirmed positively. However, the bank has since been committing mistakes. On the due date, the amount was debited from my EIB savings account, but not credited to my EIB credit card. On April 15, late payment fees and monthly membership fees were charged on my credit card. On April 21, I received a call from their collections’ team, informing me that extra charges would be added if I didn’t pay on the same day. On April 22, an amount equivalent to two instalments plus unwarranted charges were transferred from my EIB savings account to EIB credit card.

I tried calling up the bank call centre and collections department several times, but unfortunately, till date, the matter stands unresolved. I keep getting assurances from the escalation team, but the mistakes have increased instead of being sorted out.

The bank needs to do the following for an amicable solution:

1) Refund the excess installment charged, as it was due only on May 9.

2) Refund the late payment charges.

3) Refund the monthly membership fees.

4) Pay compensation for illegally taking my funds and causing me mental distress and frustration.

Without authorisation, they have taken funds from the account. Compensation calculated for one month is the same as the late payment charges and monthly membership fees charged to me. It is late for two months now, so it would equate to Dh820 (Dh410 x two months).

5) Employ staff who are fluent in English and know how all banking transactions work.

Further, on May 23, an amount of Dh410 was reversed towards wrong late payment fees charged and wrong monthly membership fees charged. However, no compensation was paid from the bank for their mistakes.

From Mr Sydney Dias, Dubai

The management of Emirates Islamic Bank responds:

Thank you for bringing Mr Dias’s concerns to our attention. On behalf of Emirates Islamic, I would like to inform you that the bank has been in touch with the customer and the matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both the customer and the bank.

The charges were mistakenly billed to the customer’s card as the result of a technical issue at the bank. However, once identified, the technical issue was rectified and the charges were reversed.

Emirates Islamic is a customer-centric organisation truly committed to providing our customers with the very best customer service. We regret the inconvenience faced by our valued customer Mr Dias, and would like to assure him that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure that this will not happen again.

Mr Dias responds:

Thank you very much Gulf News for helping me sort out the issue with EIB quickly. Thank you for all the good work, which the newspaper has been doing for their readers, by helping them resolve their issues in a prompt manner.

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