Lifetime free?
I am writing to share a bad experience with Emirates NBD. My story started when I was pushed to subscribe for two credit cards last year, and the sales agent clearly mentioned the credit cards were free for life. This July however, I was surprised that I had renewal charges for both credit cards in my monthly statement. I contacted the bank to ask about the charges and the answer was: “This is the annual charge”. I explained to the representative that I was informed by their sales agent that my credit cards were free for life, but the representative said they were not.
I asked him to file a complaint for my case, but unfortunately he did not file one for me. Eventually, I insisted on creating a complaint against the sales agent who sold me the credit cards.
After a few days, the sales agent contacted me saying: “Sir, I told you that one credit card is free and the other one is not”. Keeping in mind that I have renewal charges for both, I told her that she had informed me that both were free and a friend witnessed what she said during the application signing process in Festival City’s counter. I asked her to cancel both credit cards and said I won’t be renewing them, to which she said okay.
I have been waiting for almost two weeks for someone to get back to me, but no one has contacted me. I didn’t pay my credit cards and I was calling the bank every day. All they kept saying is: “There is nothing we can do”. I decided not to pay the credit cards due to the extra annual renewal charges I had accumulated.
The new statement was generated, and I was even more surprised that I had exceeded my card limits because of additional renewal charges that they didn’t waive. Meanwhile, I received additional charges for exceeding the limit and late payment.
How can the bank allow their employees to say ‘free for life’ to sell cards to us, and not take proper action against the employee or sort out our problems?
I stopped using my Emirates NBD current account for regular transactions since their system once showed me a debit of Dh19,000 in my account by mistake and the collections department had no explanation for it.
Thank you very much Gulf News for sharing our stories, so that the organisations pay more attention.
From Mr Ahmad Helal
Dubai
The management of Emirates NBD responds:
We would like to inform you that our Group Customer Experience team has been trying to get in touch with Mr Helal to provide him with the necessary clarifications relating to the annual membership fees levied on his two credit cards, the level of service provided by the call centre to help him solve the issue, and regarding the hold placed on his account. Since we were unable to get in touch with the customer, we have sent him a confirmation email regarding the action taken.
Please note that, upon investigating customer’s concerns with the relevant units, we have found that customer was properly assisted by the Bank representatives. Furthermore, as a service gesture of goodwill the Bank has reversed the annual membership fees levied on the credit cards on September 16, and this will be reflected in the upcoming credit card statements. Furthermore, we would also like to confirm that there is no hold placed the customer’s personal account.
We would like to thank you for your continuous support in offering us the opportunity to further assist our valued customers.
Mr Helal responds:
Please be informed that the limit has exceeded due to the annual membership fees they added for both credit cards. Both were below the limit before the outstanding amount was increased with the annual fees.
The bank has pushed me earlier to pay the annual fees, along with fees charged for exceeding the limit and late payment charges, however, the person in charge in the escalation department promised that he would help return the limit charges and the late payment to my credit card balance. Unfortunately, nothing has happened.
Exceeded limit charges were accrued once they added the annual membership fees to my cards.
The late payment charges occurred because I was trying to sort out the annual membership fees for more than a month and no one was helping me out.
With regard to the account hold, I would like to have an explanation about holding/debiting an amount of Dh20,591 on July 2.
I called the collection department so many times to understand the reason, but they had nothing to say.
Emirates NBD responds:
We are pleased to inform you that our Group Customer Experience team has been in touch with Mr Helal to address his concerns and the matter has been resolved to his satisfaction.
Mr Helal was informed that the over limit charges levied will be reversed as a token of appreciation for maintaining a relationship with the Bank. Additionally, the customer was provided with the necessary clarifications with regards to the hold, which was placed on his account during July, and this has also been released from the account.
We would like to thank you for your continuous support in offering us the opportunity to further assist our valued customers.
Mr Helal responds:
I am writing to confirm that the Bank’s Group Customer Experience team has contacted me and informed me that the over limit charges will be reversed for both cards. I would like to thank Gulf News for assisting me to solve my issue with Emirates NBD.
(Process initiation: September 18. Response from organisation: September 23. Process completion: September 29.)
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.
