I am facing some issues with my FGB credit card. I have had an inactive one for around a year. During my purchase of the card, one of the FGB representatives told me that there wouldn’t be any service charges unless I activate it.

Everything was fine until April 2016. I went to India for a vacation and stayed there for around a month. During that period, once I activated my UAE Sim card, I received a message from FGB that my payment was due. I thought it was a wrong message. Later, in June, I activated the UAE Sim card and checked for updates. I was surprised that I had received another two messages stating my FGB credit card payment was due.

A customer care representative informed me that my FGB credit card was temporarily blocked because of the service charges and the amount not being paid. All the dues came up to Dh1,048. I requested them to cancel the card and the representative requested for cancellation of the service charge and the card together. After a few days, I was so happy to see a message from FGB that all the charges were reverted, but the card cancellation request was not considered.

Again, I requested for card cancellation. I called the customer care representative and he told me there was no pending amount so I could cancel the card anytime, upon request.

After a week, I got a callback from FGB. The representative told me that the service charge was reverted upon the agreement of using the card for another six months. I told the representative that I had never agreed to using it for another six months. She stated that they had informed the management that I would use the card for the next six months and, on that basis, their management agreed to cancel the service charges. She concluded that I could not cancel the card now and the request was closed. I felt like I was being blackmailed by the bank. For the third time, I called the same FGB credit card customer care number and asked them about the procedure to cancel the card in my current situation. The representative informed me there was no pending payment and the card was temporarily blocked and had not yet been activated. So there were no obstacles.

I got a call from FGB saying that the agreement was still valid and if I wanted to cancel the card, the customer care representative would talk to the management, then they would ask me to pay the amount that had already been reverted. I told the representative that I wasn’t ready to pay the amount, so asked them to talk to the management regarding cancellation and to let me know the result. The customer care representative was so angry with me and behaved like I was borrowing her own money and not giving it back on time. I told her not to cancel the request and to keep it open. I am lucky she kept it open. I received another call later. They said very politely that the card couldn’t be cancelled and if I wanted to cancel now, I would have to pay Dh1,048. I feel trapped.

I am writing this, expecting some help from Gulf News. There is no place I can go with this complaint and I feel like FGB is doing this to all customers. If I am in an emergency situation and need to cancel my visa, I wouldn’t have any options. All I would have to do is pay the amount. Please help me solve this issue!

From Mr Baiju Maliyekkal Rappai

Dubai

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. The bank has been in contact with Mr Rappai, and the matter has been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

Mr Rappai responds:

Thanking you, Gulf News, for the support in my credit card issue. I received a confirmation message from FGB regarding the cancellation of my credit card.

Process initiation: August 25. Response from organisation: August 29. Reader confirmation: August 30).

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.