Crossing the limit
I write about this incident, after reading a report in Gulf News on about a reader being unfairly charged. I too, had a similar experience with Rakbank. I have a credit card, which initially had a credit limit of Dh5,000.
My last outstanding bill was around Dh35. I could not pay that amount before my due date since I was in India. But before the next billing date, I had made purchases through the same card for around Dh4,900.
I knew I would be getting a late payment fee for the earlier Dh35. But to my surprise, an extra amount was charged for overlimit fee, This meant Dh4,900 for purchases with a fine of Dh125 for late payment.
I contacted the customer care centre and tried to tell them what happened but sadly I was asked to pay the fine for overlimit by the bank.
From Mr Pious Collins, Dubai
Mr Ian Hodges, Head of Personal Banking at Rakbank, responds:
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to justify our stance on the issues raised by Mr Collins, Rakbank customer.
The overlimit fee is applicable to credit card accounts when the assigned card limit is exceeded. Mr Collin’s credit card exceeded the limit by a marginal amount in May 2012 and hence the overlimit fee was applied in June 2012.
We have contacted the customer and clarified the details. As a service gesture, the charge applied to his June 2012 statement has been reversed.
Mr Collins responds:
Thanks a lot for your kind intervention. It has helped a lot. The bank has contacted me and promised to reverse the overlimit fee. They have advised me to keep a balance of at least Dh500 in the credit card to accommodate any financial charges in the future so that I can avoid the overlimit fee.
Since I am now aware that the bank will charge the overlimit fee, I am never going to use my card to that extent, going forward.
Wishing Gulf News good luck in its future endeavours.
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
