Unfair late fees

Unfair late fees

Gulf News, please help me raise my concerns regarding a Najm silver credit card that I have. They charged me with a late payment fee of Dh250, as they said that I did not pay.

On January 24, I paid the minimum and transferred the payment of Dh200 through my online banking system. Then on February 12, I received a notification, stating that I had not paid the minimum amount. So I called them and told them that I looked through my online banking and there was no issue. Considering this, they said that they would forward the request to the concerned department. Following this, I received an email, requesting me to call them.

I was then informed that they could not reverse the late payment fee, as I should have checked the bank statement. However, my point is, why is online banking available if they do not consider this to be accurate? Why should I have to check the paper statement? Please help me get them to reverse the late payment fee of Dh250.

From Mr John Paul Yu

Sharjah

A spokesperson for Majid Al Futtaim Finance LLC responded:

Please be advised that after our investigation, it was found that the customer paid less than the minimum payment required. The minimum payment amount due was communicated to him through an e-statement sent via email, an SMS sent to his registered mobile number and it was reflected on the e-Najm web portal. We have checked all three mediums and the information on all matched.

With regards to the call the customer claimed that he had with our customer care centre, claiming that the agent informed him that the information on the portal is not accurate; we have checked the recorded call and can confirm that there was no such information communicated to the customer. We invited the customer to listen to the call himself, which he rejected, however we can still send the recording to him directly if he desires and we can provide all proof needed. By law, we cannot disclose any of this information to third parties, as it falls under customer protection rights.

Hence, the disputed late fee will remain unchanged as it has been rightfully applied on the customer’s statement, since the required minimum payment was not paid on its due date.

(Process initiation: March 7. Response from organisation: March 10. Process completion: March 23.)

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