I have been facing issues with Mashreq Bank credit cards, which my wife was using a long time ago. She had two credit cards (including supplementary) and later requested to close the same through phone banking and did the settlement of the outstanding amount about eight years ago. Thereafter, we didn’t hear anything from the bank on these cards.
Recently, I got a call from their recovery team, asking to settle the outstanding amount of Dh8,351 (Dh3,892 plus Dh4,459) on those cards, which surprised us.
We approached the collection team over phone and were advised to reach out to any branch to settle this issue. They raised a point that “this might be because of the statement fee,” which they initiated recently.
Based on the advice from them, we approached Al Quoz branch but we were redirected to the collection team again, as they mentioned the same - “it might be a statement fee”.
From their collection team, I met an agent on March 19, and reiterated to him, the same previous “statement fee factor” as suspect and added this could be waived off with approval as this was not because of any purchase.
He informed me that an internal mail has been sent to sort this matter as the same issue was reported previously, by another customer.
Meanwhile, I got a call from the recovery team, asking to pay the outstanding as soon as possible. I have informed him about the discussion with the agent and the internal mail, which he has sent, and asked him to call me back in case of any issues.
I haven’t heard anything from them for about one month and on April 8 (when my wife and I were not in the country) my friend got a threatening call, from the legal department and they said they would raise a police case and put my wife in jail, which shocked us as we have properly responded to all their queries and met the concerned/directed staff to sort out this issue. But still, it has been of no use.
I made another visit to the collection team on April 12 and came to know that the internal mail, which they sent for waiving off the charges, has not been approved and the agent connected me over the phone, mentioning it was a maintenance fee accumulation that the amount needs to be settled at a discounted rate.
I have the following concerns on this issue.
Once the request has been raised to close the card and the payment made, to clear the outstanding amount, why is this statement/maintenance fee being generated?
If the outstanding amount is generated because of statement fee, why were we not informed by mail/phone on time, rather than waiting for years?
Since the bank personnel suspects the “statement fee factor” as the prime suspect, and we haven’t requested for the same for a closed card, why is the bank insisting that we have to pay the amount, which we are not responsible for?
We are tired of the response we get from the handling team. Please help us to close this issue.
From Mr Biju Payyan Valappil
Sharjah
The management of Mashreq responds:
Thank you for sharing Mr Valappil’s concern with us.
We have investigated the concerns raised by Mr Valappil regarding the charges on his wife’s credit cards.
Our investigation reveals that the credit cards were active and customer was charged Maintenance fee on the card, which was applicable in 2010.
Due to non-payment of the credit cards, the charges accumulated to Dh5,697.85 and Dh5,085.99 accordingly on the two credit cards.
We have processed the reversal of all the charges as gesture and the same will reflect within the next 24 hours.
Mr Valappil has been contacted and informed that the complaint response will be shared with Gulf News since we cannot share a customer’s financial information with him.
We take this opportunity to thank Gulf News once again for bringing this issue to our notice.
Mr Valappil responds:
Thanks a lot for the support from Gulf News. Also, the decision from the bank is much appreciated.
However I am still getting calls from the recovery/collection team, insisting that I make the payment as soon as possible.
To address all these issues, we would like to close all the accounts (if already not closed) with Mashreq and request them to issue a clearance letter against the same. Thanks again, all for the support.
Mashreq responds:
Thank you for highlighting Mr Valappil’s concern with us.
We have instructed our collection and recovery team to restrict any calls to Mr Valappil or his spouse as the credit cards have been settled.
The clearance letter has been issued and Mr Valappil has been advised to visit the collection unit along with the authorisation letter and original passport to collect the same.
Account closure procedure has been shared with Mr Valappil, however he has confirmed that his spouse Ms Shajeela will be visiting the branch once she is in the country for the same.
We take this opportunity to thank Gulf News once again for bringing this issue to our notice.
Mr Valappil responds:
Thanks again Gulf News, for addressing this issue. I have got the mentioned clearance letter from collection team.
(Process initiation: May 8, 2018. Response from organisation: May 9, 2018. Process completion: May 30, 2018)
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.
