Objection over limit charges
I have been a Standard Chartered bank Priority customer for three years. There have been absolutely no defaults on my credit card payments and the bank had even increased my credit card limit from Dh50,000 to Dh205,000 (without my approval).
I had taken an additional Titanium card a few months ago, due to attractive cash back offers on school fees, utilities and supermarket. This discount policy was recently changed by the bank, which forced me to go for a card from another bank. In order to get the new credit card, I was asked to reduce the existing card’s limit and I chose to reduce the limit on my Standard Chartered card from Dh205,000 to Dh55,000.
After a few days, I initiated an online request to increase the limit from Dh55,000 to Dh75,000 and more than a week later it was mentioned that the request was completed with no additional information. I had to call the phone banking to know that the request was actually rejected.
In July, while trying to use my card, I found that it was getting rejected intermittently and while checking the statement I found an over limit fee of Dh200 charged on July 5 and again on July 17. When I called priority banking and questioned them, I was told that the charges were as per bank policy and after questioning them on the rejection of my limit increase and these unjustified charges, I was promised a reply after checking with the concerned team (that reply never came). I was also told that my card outstanding was Dh60,000. Even though the due date was days away, I immediately paid the due as per the statement to avoid this confusion hoping that the bank would reverse the charges.
Why the bank should allow me to go over the limit and charge me twice within the month for the over limit, that too after rejecting my limit increase from Dh55,000 to Dh75,000, is beyond me. How is the bank allowed to change the cash back policy of a card, months after promoting it and getting customers? The bank should reverse the two over limit charges. I request Gulf News to take this up with the bank.
From Mr Rajakumar Sankarakrishnan
Abu Dhabi
The management of Standard Chartered responds:
We have been in contact with our customer and the issue reported has been fully resolved. All considerations have now been satisfied. The customer has personally expressed satisfaction over the complaint resolution and has not raised any further issue thereafter.
Mr Sankarakrishnan responds:
I thank Gulf News for taking up this issue that helped in getting it resolved. I also thank Standard Chartered for their understanding and resolving the issue to my complete satisfaction.
(Process initiation: September 25. Response from organisation: October 7. Reader confirmation: October 8.)
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