I would like to highlight an issue with my credit card. I have a FGB Gold Card. In December 2015, before buying a watch and jewellery, I called the customer service centre twice to ask them about the procedure for ‘Shop Now, Pay Later’ and they gave me the details.

The information I gathered from the customer service was as follows:

• After buying the item, I would need to call them again.

• Enrolling for the ‘Shop Now, Pay Later’ was payable for an applicable number of months.

• After enrolling for the ‘Shop Now, Pay Later’ offer, they would give me a payment plan.

• No one informed me that I would need to settle or clear my outstanding balance before I proceeded for the ‘Shop Now, Pay Later’ offer.

I bought two watches and some jewellery and recently, an issue crept up with FGB. I made a follow up call to the customer service centre, because I was wondering why I had such huge charges. Fortunately, the last customer service representative I spoke with gave me proper guidelines — that I should have first paid my outstanding balance before I used the ‘Shop Now, Pay Later’ offer. Otherwise, the transaction I made would just be considered as normal payment.

I made a complaint and requested them to consider the ‘Shop Now, Pay Later’ offer because it was not my mistake that the customer service representative had given me incorrect information.

The scenario was such that the monthly payment I made of Dh1,000 was mostly used for the charges of Dh763.51 on billed finance charges! I was just paying for the monthly finance charges and my outstanding balance went up to Dh11,280.

Also, I informed them that I had lost my job in January 2016. The last customer service representative I had spoken with informed me that he would email and raise my complaint, and someone would get back to me within two to three days. Days passed but no one bothered to call me. When I called them again, I was told that my complaint was denied.

I am hopeless and the burden I have with this bank is too much to handle. I haven’t been able to find a job yet and I don’t want to go home until I settle my outstanding balance with them.

From Ms Jennie Espejo

Sharjah

The management of FGB responds:

FGB is grateful for all customer feedback to which we give careful consideration as we strive to consistently deliver the highest standards of service. Ms Espejo will be visiting our collections team in due course, who will help her to resolve the matter.

(Process initiation: May 11. Response from organisation: June 22. Process completion: July 11)