I had applied for a credit card from United Arab Bank (UAB) in November 2013. For the first three months, I didn’t receive any statement from the bank either by post or by email. On January 9, 2014, I received a call from the bank asking me to pay the money, including the interest, as it was overdue. I told them that I had not received any statement or notice informing me about the payment due. When speaking in detail, the bank representative informed me that they had been posting the bank statement to the wrong address. The bank official said he would look into the error and let me know. He further insisted that I pay the money that was due as of January 2014, and emailed me my statement. Within two days of receiving this call, I made the payment - an amount of Dh1,520. I also replied to the email, attaching the proof of payment and a copy of the application form. After this conversation, I did not receive any call from the bank.
I proactively called the bank to register an official complaint on March 14, 2014. However, I didn’t receive any response. I got a call from the bank on September 20, 2014. This was to collect further dues. I immediately explained the full story and gave the complaint reference number. The man told me he would check and call me again. I even sent an email from my end to his email address and to the customer service email. Again, there was no communication from the bank. I sent out an email mentioning the entire issue, specifying the complaint number. I also resent the email on September 29 as there was no response. This time, I even attached the card number and details like the card limit and date of expiry. Again, no response from the bank since then.
Now, suddenly, on May 22, 2016, I got a call from UAB asking me to pay an amount of Dh2,010 or else they would recover the full amount of Dh20,000 from the guarantee cheque they hold. I explained the entire situation to the representative, but he didn’t listen. Now, I feel they are deliberately harassing me and just don’t want to cooperate. It is their mistake and instead of accepting the error, they are forcing me to pay the penalty.
I am feeling harassed and extremely disturbed. Despite the fact that I offered my complete cooperation, was totally proactive and was doing continuous follow ups, the bank has reached the level of threatening me. I would like to request Gulf News to please guide me as to how to go about this.
From Mr Mahesh Mehboobani
Dubai
The management of UAB responds:
We have released the hold amount on June 22, in the current account, as it was part of the written off amount. We got in touch with the customer prior to the release and have explained everything to him in detail.
Mr Mehboobani responds:
I have received the letter from UAB. Please consider the issue resolved.
(Process initiation: June 2. Response from organisation: June 8. Reader confirmation: July 13.)
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.
