Annual fee issue

Annual fee issue

This is with regard to the cancellation of my Mastercard Titanium Credit Card with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB).

I had placed a request to cancel the card on January 31. I have no outstanding till date, for whatever purchases I have made on the card. However, on February 4, I received a call from SCB, saying that I would have to pay Dh300 in annual fees and thereafter, the card could be cancelled. The debit for the annual charge was made in my account in January, before the card statement generation date, which is February 19.

I understand that the annual charge is for the next year, i.e. 2016 - 2017. So if I don’t want to use the card, why am I supposed to pay for it? Also, the card statement has still not been generated for February, hence I wish to cancel the card, before the next statement is generated. But the bank is adamant on their policies.

The bank is talking of policies that are itself unethical, in my opinion — in the sense that a person is made to pay a charge for services he doesn’t want to use. In my case, I informed the bank much in advance about this, even before the card statement generation date.

I might have signed on credit card application documents without knowing I would have to pay for something I would not be using. This is a very strange policy.

From Mr Sameer Prabodh Bhavsar

Dubai

The management of SCB responds:

Upon receiving the complaint, Standard Chartered Customer Care Unit contacted the client and informed him of the credit card policy. The annual fees levied on the card are valid as per the terms and conditions of the card that the client has signed and agreed on when acquiring the card. All considerations have now been satisfied and the client has not raised any further issue thereafter.

(Process initiation: February 8, 2016. Response from organisation: February 9. Process completion: February 24.)

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