After 13 years of living in Dubai, I had to leave and return to my home country for personal reasons. In order not to keep any issues unresolved with my bank, I called them and asked them how much money was left on my credit card instalments — it should have been around Dh20,000 for both cards.
Knowing that the call centre had asked me to pay Dh11,000 for the first card and another Dh9,000 for the second card almost a year ago, and that my monthly instalments amounted to Dh1,000 per card, I wanted to close both credit cards.
When I called them, I did so with the intention of paying the rest of the money. The way I have been treated is as if I am running away, or as if I am a thief!
Anyway, I reached my home country and started getting messages from an employee in the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD). She asked me to send another Dh2,000 — Dh1,000 for each card. I had no problem with that, but I asked for an email, so that my money wasn’t just being paid for nothing. She refused and told me to send Dh2,000. I told her that I have been going through this for almost a year and that NBAD said they had made a mistake. I really wanted an email before I transferred the money from my home country. I still had Dh20,000 left to pay, so Dh2,000 per month would mean paying my outstanding amount in 10 months. She said I had to send the payment first, to show them good faith! I said I have been paying all these months, but they just ignored the whole payment and procedures, and said it was a mistake. They almost neglected around Dh40,000 of my payments the first time around.
Now, they are telling me that I am late on payments and that my outstanding amount is Dh72,000! I have all the messages with the saleswoman and my payment receipts from the bank.
I don’t want to make a fuss out of anything, all I need is to be treated fairly. I want to pay what’s left of my dues and I don’t want to cause any hassle – not for NBAD and not for me.
I have called them to pay my dues, but still, they want to create problems. They are the ones who don’t want to solve my issue!
From Mr Fadi Alain Halabi
Dubai
The management of NBAD responds:
Mr Halabi was having irregularities in his payments since March, 2016. Due to these irregularities, the outstanding on the cards have increased. We have been in contact with Mr Halabi and have also explained to him how these charges were applied to his credit cards. Our collections department has spoken to Mr Halabi again today to clarify further and to work out a repayment plan.
Thank you once again for forwarding the complaint to us. Our customers’ experience is very important to us and we are thankful for the opportunity to respond.
Mr Halabi responds:
Thank you so much for taking my issue seriously. NBAD called me and promised me a solution.
(Process initiation: December 6. Response from organisation: December 6. Reader confirmation: December 6).
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