Charged for service

I would like to raise a complaint against RAKBANK. I took a personal loan from them and I was paying it off on a regular basis. On a call with a customer care personnel from RAKBANK, I was informed that every six months, I could get an option to skip payments for a month. I have paid for almost 18 months, whereby I have gone to their Al Jazeera branch in Abu Dhabi to do the needful.

The representative at the counter did all the paperwork for me and said I would be charged only Dh100 for this service and promised me that in the coming month, I wouldn’t be charged any instalments.

To my surprise, I was charged the instalment and was also charged Dh100 for the service. I went to the branch again and asked them why it had happened. The response was that it was a mistake and would be taken care of in two days; I would just have to go back and check.

Till date, I have been to the branch five times. I commute by taxi and have already spent Dh200 taxi fare to sort out this issue. But, I still haven’t received Dh100 back for the service, nor have they returned my instalment amount. When inquiring with the customer service over the phone, they said I had to go to the same branch. At the branch, they have no clue about what is happening.

This was the worst banking experience I’ve had in my life. There was no proper customer care and no hospitality.

From Mr Georgi Thomas

Abu Dhabi

 

The management of RAKBANK responds:

We write in reference to your email regarding the issues raised by Mr Thomas, RAKBANK customer. The concerns raised by Mr Thomas have been investigated and we understand that his loan instalment postponement for October, 2014, was approved by the bank on September 17, 2014 and his account was charged for the same. However, the client requested for a part settlement of his loan on September 30, resetting his loan financials due to which his instalment postponement for October 2014 was overridden. We regret the inconvenience caused to Mr Thomas and have apologised to him for the delay in addressing his concerns. Since receipt of Gulf News’ correspondence, we have contacted Mr Thomas and refunded the postponement charges to his accounts. We will be glad to provide any further clarifications as required.

 

Mr Thomas responds:

Yes, RAKBANK contacted me and did the needful. I thank Gulf News for the support in this regard.

 

Charged interest

I took a personal finance loan from Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) in September, 2013. In September, 2014, I required money so I approached the bank for an increase in my loan, but they refused. So, I approached another bank that gave me a better rate and some extra money to fulfil my requirements.

Later in the month, the new bank settled the old finance loan from ADIB. When I inquired about the remaining unpaid interest for three years, ADIB refused to give it to me by saying it’s an internal bank policy that they don’t give remaining interest back.

They charged me interest for four years, which was almost Dh30,000. That’s wrong! As per the Central Bank’s policy, they have to refund interest by charging one per cent processing fees.

Please help solve this issue. I have visited many of their branches, but they are not helping.

From Mr Nadeem Alekar

Dubai

 

The management of ADIB responded:

We thank you for your concern and raising the issue with us. ADIB has a proposed solution for the customer. The customer was contacted and he was pleased with our proposed solution.

 

Mr Alekar responded:

I am not happy with their service. ADIB now refunded the remaining amount into my account, which was almost Dh24,000. My question is, why did they create trouble for me? Even when I asked them for a liability letter, they delayed the process and I had to pay for the certificate twice.

I applied for the finance loan last year. Since ADIB is an Islamic bank, they provided finances based on the stock exchange. When I bought the shares and was supposed to sell them, at the same time, I was to get back the loan credit into my account. But suddenly, the share prices went down and I had to bear a loss of Dh6,000 on the same day. I don’t understand how that is my fault. Why should I bear such a loss? I didn’t want to buy the shares, but it was ADIB’s finance arrangement. This is why I demanded Dh30,000, but only received Dh24,000.

 

The management of ADIB responded:

We have taken the complaint of our customer into consideration and our customer service unit contacted him and attended to his request.

 

Mr Alekar responded:

As said earlier, I received the loan. I am waiting for Dh6,000 that I lost while taking a loan from ADIB. I haven’t received any feedback from them regarding this. Please help me to get this issue resolved.

 

The management of ADIB responded:

We have spoken to our complaints department and we can confirm that we have done our best to settle and address the customer’s complaints.

 

(Process initiation: November 10. Response from organisation: November 12. Reader confirmation: November 17)

 

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.