Too much, too late
I had opened a savings account with Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) almost seven years ago, but couldn’t continue to use the account for various reasons.
Recently, I visited Jumeirah Beach Residences, The Walk branch of DIB, to apply for a clearance letter for my car loan and I enquired about the savings account’s status to close my account. To my surprise I was told by the bank representative that I had charges of Dh1,119 due to non-maintenance of minimum balance, and they advised me to pay this amount so that the account could be closed. I told them this account was opened as a zero balance savings account. They advised me to visit the DIB branch where I opened this account for further details about closure of the account.
I visited the Ibn Battuta branch, where I had opened this account, and requested to close my savings account, but unfortunately they refused to do so, since I had to pay Dh1,119 as non-maintenance charges.
Why was I not told about the charges up until now? Furthermore, I have the same mailing address, post box number, email address and mobile number that was given to the bank when I opened the account. I didn’t get any kind of notification from the bank so far. I requested them to waive the charges but they refused.
I would like to seek help from Gulf News, to kindly bring this issue to DIB management. I want them to waive the charges and close my savings account permanently.
From Mr Mustaq Ahmad Abdullahath
Dubai
Mr Abdullahath updates:
Thank you Gulf News for forwarding my concern to DIB. I received a call from the bank and I was told it was not possible to waive off the charges incurred. But the explanation given to me is still a concern. My big question is, why was there no communication all these years, about the charges?
The bank is claiming that they had sent a letter about the change in charges in the year 2009, but truly, I have not received any sort of communication from the bank.
Once in a while, I used to get some promotional text messages from the bank. If they can send these kinds of messages, then I presume they can do the same for the charges I have in the account.
I again seek help from Gulf News, if the issue can be further forwarded to the grievances department within the bank, so that charges can be waived off and I can close my account.
The management of DIB responds:
DIB would like to confirm that our customer service team has been in touch with Mr Abdullahath to address the issue.
We have explained to Mr Abdullahath that he has stopped using his DIB account without formally applying for account closure. We have also reiterated that the bank has announced maintenance charges to all DIB account holders in May 2009 through various channels. In his case, the statements were sent to his P.O. Box number, registered in our system, and the statements are available upon his request.
As such, the bank considers the case to be closed now as the customer is not eligible for waiver as per the protocol followed at DIB. We would like to remind our customers to always notify us should they wish to close their account in order to avoid paying any fees.
(Process initiation: May 16. Response from organisation: May 25.)
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.
