Unauthorised bank charges

I wish to raise my concerns about First Gulf Bank’s practice of activating products without any pre-authorisation from its customers and charging us for the same. There was no mention of credit shield and accident insurance on the application form, nor was this highlighted to us. However, they have charged for the same and are not ready to reverse these charges, which we feel is unfair and an unethical business practice. On calling the bank’s call centre, its representative stated: “It was under the terms and conditions of the credit card.” However, the sales person never highlighted this to us or took specific consent for the same.

Credit card companies, or any organisation for that matter, should clearly provide options for customers on the application forms and/or the sales agents should be trained on bringing it to the attention when making a sale. Such backdoor charges should not be allowed and regulated by the UAE Central Bank or any other competent regulatory body, in charge of such trade practices.

I strongly believe that in any regulatory environment, charging a customer without his/her specific consent and then refusing to reverse such charges, under the pretext of “terms and conditions” or “policy” would tantamount to an “Unfair Trade Practise.”

I had come across a similar complaint from another consumer in your esteemed daily where, after your intervention the bank agreed to reverse these charges. The point to be noted here is why is it done only on case by case basis, instead of a mass reversal at organisational level, for similar situation. Isn’t the bank getting away by not reversing in majority cases who do not voice their opinion for various reasons?

I request Gulf News intervention on the matter to not only seek reversal of the charges but also to highlight the same for public awareness and redressal.

From Ms Bharti Sampat

Dubai

The management of First Gulf Bank responds:

Kindly note that the customer has been contacted by our representative and we have already informed the customer that charges will be reversed back.

Ms Sampat responds:

I am sincerely grateful to Gulf News for the help rendered to me in resolving this long standing issue. It is purely due to your involvement that the bank has agreed in a phone call to me to reverse the disputed charges back to me, within a matter of just two days of your taking it up with the bank even though our plea had seemed to fallen on deaf ears. Thank you so much Gulf News for the help.

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