Credit shield issue
I have been staying in the UAE for the past 10 years and I recently decided to buy a car. I received an SMS on my mobile phone, with an offer stating that we could buy a car from any authorised dealer using our Mashreq credit card at zero per cent instalment for 12 months. I never used this until now.
I spoke to the agent and confirmed that there was no hidden charge or anything extra, which I would have to pay, apart from my instalments. The agent told me that I would only have to pay for the 5 per cent commision on the outstanding amount, which amounts to Dh1,425 and then the monthly instalments of Dh1,189 per month for 24 months.
I double checked with the agent if I would have to pay anything more and he replied in the negative.
To my surprise, I found an email congratulating me on my credit shield on October 12, 2014. Later, as I checked my email, I got more suspicious and so again spoke with the agent on the October 17, telling him that I don’t need any credit shield on my payments.
Yet, I found after a few days that I had been charged an excess amount of Dh262.55 for the month of October for credit shield. Later on, an agent called me and asked me why I wanted to cancel it and I told her that I am not interested in paying such a huge amount for my small car.
She told me that she would cancel it and confirmed the cancellation. However, still, they did not refund the credit shield charge for October, which was clearly done without informing me about it. I was surprised that even after taking precautionary measures to avoid such issues, the bank was successful in charging me for something I didn’t want.
When I complained to them again about the reversal, stating that this was clearly a mistake on their part — to charge me credit shield even after I informed them before the billing date that I wanted to cancel it — they still charged me this massive amount.
I asked them to cancel the credit shield on October 17, yet they charged me at midnight the same day. Their explanation was that even though my request for credit shield removal was placed, it was only processed by Mashreq on October 23, hence the charges.
The agent I spoke to told me that the management has decided not to refund my credit shield after looking at my case.
I request Gulf News to help me recover my falsely charged amount.
From Mr Anoop Namboodiri
Abu Dhabi
The management of Mashreq responds:
Thank you for bringing Mr Namboodri’s complain to our notice.
Mr Namboodri had complained with regards to the Credit Shield charges. Our investigation results show that his telephonic consent was taken prior to enrolment of this facility and hence was not a miss-sell. Mr Namboodri called the bank on October 17, to cancel the facility. Cancellation request was taken and he was informed that the process will take 2-3 days.
Since cancellation took place after Mr Namboodri’s statement generation date, the charges were levied in his next statement. The charges were correct and in lieu for the period the insurance facility was utilised prior to cancellation. We have called and explained Mr Namboodri the context.
Since Mr Namboodri was not informed upfront at the time of taking the cancellation request that the charges will not be reversed for the period the facility was utilised, we are glad to confirm that we have reversed the charges as service gesture. Mr Namboodri has been contacted and informed of the gesture and he is satisfied with the resolution provided. On the call he was also explained that his car transaction was different from the credit shield enrolment. Mr Namboodri has no further concerns.
Thank you once again on seeking our clarification in the matter.
Mr Namboodri responds:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gulf News for helping me get justice with regards to wrong charges in my credit card statement. I would like to say that this has really shown that Gulf News takes community journalism very seriously and provides relief to people like me, who cannot single-handedly get justice.
I wish you all success, and also thank Mashreq’s management for sorting out my complaint.
(Process initiation: November 15, 2014. Response from organisation: November 18. Reader response: November 18.)
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.
