I have been using an Emirates NBD account for more than 10 years now. I had issued a cheque to my client on May 1, 2015 (Friday). I tried to deposit money in cash deposit machine in Emirates NBD Muhaisnah branch on May 1, but it was not working.

The next morning, May 2 (Saturday), I reached the bank and deposited cash at approximately 8:12am for which I received a confirmation SMS on my phone at 8.13am.

At 11.45am same day I received an SMS from Emirates NBD stating, an amount of Dh8,033 has been debited from my account for inward clearing cheque. And then I received another SMS stating, the cheque issued for Dh8,033 was returned. Reason: Insufficient Funds.

I can show you a series of SMS that I received and the bank statement showing the cheque has been cleared and then returned due to insufficient funds.

As a result of which the bank charged me Dh100 on May 3 for cheque return charges and I have been charged Dh510 from my client for the same.

Why did the bank clear my cheque in the first place if they felt I had insufficient funds in my bank? And if they cleared it first, then why was it returned again?

If the bank had any issues, they could have charged me, but why was the cheque first cleared and then later returned to my client due to which I incurred additional costs! When there were funds in my account, why was the cheque returned to the client.

From Mr Bhagat Singh

Dubai

The management of Emirates NBD responds:

We are pleased to inform you that our Group Customer Experience team has been in touch with Mr Bhagat Singh and provided him with the necessary clarifications.

We wish to confirm that sufficient funds were unavailable in Mr Singh’s account as per the date of the cheque; he has deposited the cheque amount on the following day. We have therefore advised Mr Singh that going forward, sufficient funds should be available in his account one day prior to the cheque clearing date to avoid returning of the same.

Based on the above clarifications, we wish to confirm that the cheque return fee on Mr Singh’s account is duly applicable.

We would like to thank you for your continuous support in offering us the opportunity to further assist our valued customers.

((Process initiation: May 19. Response from organisation: May 24.)

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