Money transfer fees
I would like Gulf News to resolve my issue with two banks, Standard Chartered Bank and Emirates NBD, in Dubai.
The issue relates to charges applied by the banks for a simple local money transfer from one bank to another, using online services.
Recently I made three online money transfers from Standard Chartered Bank to my wife’s Emirates NBD account and hefty charges were deducted from my account for using the online banking services.
Standard Chartered Bank debited Dh109.98 from my account — broken into Dh10 and Dh99.98 — for each transaction, saying Dh99.98 was charged for receiving funds by Emirates NBD while their own charges were only Dh10.
My wife immediately called Emirates NBD to clarify these charges and they denied any such charge, especially for inward remittances. I immediately called Standard Chartered Bank’s customer care and lodged my complaint.
Standard Chartered Bank customer care have maintained their stand, saying the charge was by Emirates NBD, while Emirates NBD customer care, on the other hand, are confidently claiming they have not charged anything for the transaction.
I request both banks to clarify the issue. I am sure it cannot be possible for the receiving bank to charge Dh99.98 per transaction for inward remittances, especially using online banking services.
From Mr Raghavendra Kulkarni
Dubai
The management of Standard Chartered Bank responds:
Upon receiving the complaint, Standard Chartered Bank’s customer care unit got in touch with the customer to understand and investigate the complaint.
The results of the investigation identified that the fees charged were not from Standard Chartered, but were inward transfer fees, charged by the receiving bank (Emirates NBD).
Our Customer Care Unit contacted the customer and explained the charges and the customer expressed satisfaction. We would like to thank Gulf News for its continuous support.
The management of Emirates NBD responds:
We are pleased to inform you that the department concerned contacted Mr Kulkarni and provided him with the necessary explanation and clarification relating to his enquiry.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the customer for providing us with your feedback and regret the inconvenience caused.
Many thanks for your continuous support and valued efforts.
Mr Kulkarni responds:
Gulf News’ intervention has helped my case to a great extent. An Emirates NBD customer care agent called and promised to discuss my case with her seniors and come up with a solution.
I would like to thank Standard Chartered Bank for their personal attention and professional way of handling my case to my satisfaction.
At this point, my case still remains unresolved, and I hope Emirates NBD will come up with an appropriate solution.
Mr Kulkarni updates:
I thank Gulf News for bringing our case into the limelight as without your intervention there was no way it would have been resolved.
I appreciate Standard Chartered Bank’s customer care team, as they went out of their way to assist us in resolving this case involving Emirates NBD.
One thing I would certainly advise all Gulf News readers is to check the charges with both the remitting and receiving banks before you make any online money transfer, be it locally or overseas.
Over limit fee
I have been a loyal customer of Dunia for more than two years. Recently, the service from Dunia finance has not been up to standard.
The issue is my Dunia credit card payment which was due on September 23, 2011. Due to unavoidable circumstances I could not make the payment by the due date.
Following a telephone conversation with Dunia, its representative asked me to pay before the statement date, that is, October 2, so I wouldn’t have an over limit fee, but would be charged for late payment only.
I agreed and made the payment on September 30. Unexpectedly, an over limit fee of Dh165 has appeared in my October statement.
From Mr Vinod Kumar
Dubai
Ms Sheila Java, Customer Fulfilment Head, Dunia, responds:
We have contacted our client, Mr Vinod Kumar, and the matter has been resolved satisfactorily. As per our policy, and in the interest of protecting and maintaining the confidentiality of our customers’ personal and account-related information, we are unable to disclose specific resolution details.
You could, however, directly contact Mr Kumar if required, to seek his feedback to close the matter at your end.
Mr Kumar responds:
Thank you very much for your support and advice in solving the issue with Dunia bank.
Dunia called me and said they would reverse the over limit fees which they charged me earlier. This issue has been resolved immediately due to Gulf News’ intervention. My sincere thanks to Gulf News for supporting us.
Bounced cheque
I hold an Emirates NBD current account in the Karama branch. On October 1 at 8.19am I received a call from the bank’s head teller saying that I had a cheque for Dh2,578 to be cleared and I was advised to deposit Dh213 as my balance at that moment was Dh2,365.
I immediately made an online transfer of Dh1,000 to my account at 8.29am.
On the same day, at 4.36pm, I received a text message from the bank saying that the cheque had been returned for reason of insufficient funds (INF).
Then I checked my statement online and to my shock it showed a reject charge of Dh100.
I attempted to call the bank several times, but I could not get through.
The following morning I visited the branch to escalate the issue. I raised my complaint with the customer service section and afterwards I was referred to the assistant manager, and I explained the series of events and requested reversal of the reject charge and asked that they rectify the error and clear the cheque.
To my surprise the assistant manager declined my request and told me it was my fault and as per Central Bank regulation the depositor must deposit money two days or a day in advance if one had a cheque for clearing.
I argued there was no use then of the head teller calling to inform me to deposit money for clearing my cheque. I added that I immediately deposited the money via online transfer.
He answered that I should be thankful that the bank called and advised me on this matter.
To make matters worse, he told me the next time they would not phone and advise me in a similar situation.
I again appealed that they should reverse the reject charge after I followed the head teller’s advice to deposit money and I asked him what was the logic of the bank calling to deposit the money and then charging me after the instruction had been followed.
Finally, the assistant manager — after the head teller acknowledged he had called me — explained that the latter was calling many clients/depositors that morning and that he had forgotten my situation and did not check that I had deposited money and then he just went ahead and declined my cheque.
Other alibis were given, such as technical problems at the bank that day and misunderstanding between the branch and their head office. It is appalling and I left the bank in frustration.
The way they handled my complaint and their disgusting customer service accorded to a client/depositor is unacceptable. The least the assistant manager could do was to acknowledge the fault of his co-worker and to simply say “Sorry”.
I hope that by writing to Gulf News, [I can make] the bank realise that they should treat their depositors fairly and kindly with regard to legitimate complaints. With reference to the reject charges, I would greatly appreciate if they would reverse it and clear my record of a rejected cheque.
From Mr Eduardo Bernabe
Dubai
The management of Emirates NBD responds:
We are pleased to inform you that the department concerned contacted Mr Bernabe and resolved his complaint. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you and the customer for providing us with feedback and regret the inconvenience caused.
Many thanks for your continuous support and valued efforts.
Mr Bernabe responds:
I thank Gulf News for the assistance in solving my complaint. I do appreciate the bank’s gesture of reversing the charge.
