I would like to raise a bad experience with RAKBANK. My RAKBANK credit card went over the limit in February 2018, by an amount of Dh16. It happened because I was not sure about the card buffer amount that I would have to keep for finance charges once the statement was generated. Due to the finance fee, the amount went over the limit and the bank charged me on the next month’s statement.

I called their customer care hotline, and they told me they couldn’t reverse the same. I accepted it was my mistake. It was Dh250 plus tax as over limit fee. Anyhow, I paid the same month’s minimum payment as well. So once they charged over limit fee for February, my March statement also went over the limit due to the same charges — they did it automatically. On the same day, I called customer care and informed them of the situation. They told me to deposit some more money immediately. On the same date, I received an SMS notification regarding my statement. However, today, I received my April statement and found that they have charged me again another Dh250 plus tax as over limit fee. This happened due to the charges they took automatically in my last statement. The over limit was for another Dh85, and they told me they would charge me in May’s statement as well, unless I pay the full outstanding.

So basically, my card was over the limit for Dh16, in the next month they charged Dh250 as over limit fee. And because of the Dh250 over limit fee which the bank charged, my card once again went into a negative balance and they charged Dh250 again. Last month, I paid more than the minimum payment due, along with the over limit fee of Dh250, yet they took both the payments and charged me the fee again this month. Due to that, my account balance is showing up as negative in my April statement. Apart from this, I am paying minimum payments and finance charges as well. I never get the statement notifications on time, either by email or SMS. They only send it two days after the date of statement generation. They never send any notifications by SMS, such as to say the card is over the limit or has crossed the buffer value. It’s always hidden in the account statements.

From Mr Praneed Adiparambil

Abu Dhabi

The management of RAKBANK responds:

Thank you for your email dated April 24, regarding concerns raised by Mr Adiparambil.

Please note that as per banks’ standards and best practice in the UAE banking industry, the Bank is limited with respect to disclosing or providing details and/or specific information about their customers to any third party to maintain the confidentiality of their data and personal information.

We have contacted the customer and clarified that the charges as per our published service and price guide were levied since the credit card outstanding went above the credit limit.

These charges have since been reversed as a service gesture and Mr Adiparambil informed of the same.

Mr Adiparambil responds:

This is to confirm that RAKBANK reversed the charges. Thank you Gulf News, for the support.

(Process initiation: April 24. Response from organisation: April 25. Reader confirmation: April 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.