'I was promised charges for late fees would be reversed'

Mounting pressure

It is with great hope that I’m writing this letter to Gulf News, as I have not received justice from First Gulf Bank (FGB).

I made only two transactions related to my FGB credit card for Dh7,000 (scheduled to be paid as an equated monthly instalment or EMI of Dh861 over nine months), for quick cash and Dh571 for an air ticket purchase.

I had already cleared both these payments on time without making any default. But later, the bank charged Dh35 for some of their insurance products, which I had not approved and I requested them to cancel the same. Still, the bank did not reverse the amount and continued to charge late fees against it. It started accruing for each of the succeeding months and has reached a total amount of more than Dh2,500 now!

Now, the bank has started threatening legal action, including travel ban and debarment with Central Bank with the blank cheque, which I had signed at the time of availing the credit card (though I don’t have an account with FGB).

After I received the final notice from the bank, I visited FGB’s Deira branch and discussed these issues personally. During that visit, I was promised they would try to reverse the amount, since there was no default from my end and an update was confirmed to me immediately.

But even after several reminders and more than a month, I have not got any update regarding the same, and today I received the legal notice from the debt recovery agency, saying I would need to make the full payment of Dh2,500 within four days.

So I humbly request Gulf News to intervene in this matter urgently, as I am undergoing tremendous pressure due to this and I’m totally devastated.

Thanks in advance for the kind help.

From Mr Pradeep Purushothaman

Sharjah

The management of First Gulf Bank responds:

FGB is committed to providing the best possible service to its customers and listening to their feedback is a top priority for the bank. The bank has been in contact with Mr Purushothaman and explained that the charges were due to minimum payments not being cleared, which incurred late payment and interest fees in subsequent months. The customer was informed about credit card insurance payments on his first statement in April 2013, which were cancelled as per his request in August 2013.

Mr Purushothaman responds:

Thanks a lot for Gulf News’ intervention, as at least they called me to provide feedback as to why they charged it. Regarding the insurance, it was not approved/taken whereas they had charged the insurance amount for the first month and then reversed the same. They had been charging the insurance, which I had not opted for and cancelled it in August, after my complaints.

Moreover, FGB was neither providing the best possible service nor listening to feedback from the customers, as they claimed.

Once again, thanks for the intervention and all your efforts.

(Process initiation: July 22. Response from organisation: August 3. Reader confirmation: August 19.)

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.