Consumer is King » Credit Card

Consumer court fines SBI Cards in a case filed by a customer and awards damages to the customer

ashish — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:39:39 +0000

There are numerous stories of consumers in India in their interactions with credit card companies. Some of the complaints that people have deal with credit card companies giving them cards without their asking for such cards, there are cases where people have been charged for services (such as insurance schemes, or others) that they have not requested for and have to fight to get removed, or when there is a transaction made on the card that the customer has not made. In many of such cases, action by consumer forums or the banking regulator have checked the practices by these agencies, but there continue to be a number of cases that make their way to consumer forums or to courts.
In another case of this kind, a complaint was made against SBI Cards, stated that the card company released a card different from the one that he had applied for, and then even many months after this when he had not yet received a card from the company, the complainant was asked to pay a fee (which is pretty absurd). And then the card company accepted that the card request was correct, but then sent him a sum of money that he had not requested. Finally, since there seemed to be no respite, a complaint was lodged in the consumer forum and then SBI Cards refused to attend the hearing. Finally, the consumer court delivered a judgment against SBI Cards (link to article):

The complainant alleged that the defendants cancelled the demand letter and informed him that his request for SBI international card was admitted when he clarified to them that he had applied for SBI card only. But again no card was sent to him. SBI Cards on July 11, 2006 sent him an account payee cheque for Rs 10,000 of SBI, Gurgaon issued in his name and directed to deposit the same in a new SBI card number.
SBI Cards did not appear in the forum despite the service of notice. The presiding officers heard the complaint ex-parte and decided in favour of the petitioner, Rajesh Mehra after going through the documentary evidence and arguments. The judges observed that the entire proceedings were initiated by the SBI Cards, hence it was liable to pay the damages.

Safety feature – Online Credit card usage

ashish — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:12:39 +0000

If you have ever stopped to look at the online credit usage you would have done (including reviewed the information you were asked to provide), it would seem extremely easy to use somebody’s card and use it for buying stuff. What is it that you need to provide in terms of information when using your credit card online ? You go to a site, decide to buy something (maybe jewellery, maybe some electronics goods, or something that can be delivered instantaneously such as software) and are asked whether you need to pay through a credit card, using the much hyped secure card payment gateways (that use ’128 bit encryption security’, and are from well known banks).
Think for a minute about the information you provide online; you typically provide the following information:
- Name
- Date of birth (sometimes)
- Card Number
- 3 / 4 Digit security code at the back of the card
- Validity period of the card
Now, if you had gone to a restaurant, and paid by card, the person taking the billing (waiter, cashier) would already have all these details (except for Date of Birth), and for that, if they ask you to fill a card containing personal details such as DOB and anniversary, most of us would fill that already. That is enough for them to use that card details online, and in many cases, this goes undetected, or detected only at the end of the month. So why is nothing being done about this ?
Well, something is finally being done (link to article):

If you’re an online shopaholic, make sure you have a personal identification number (PIN)/password for your credit or debit cards. Otherwise, forget about using them for internet shopping from August 1. A recent directive by the Reserve Bank of India makes it mandatory to have an additional authentication passcode verified by Visa or MSC (Mastercard Secure Code). This is in addition to the other information already on the card like name, card number, expiry date and CVV (card verification value) number
So how do you get this new password? Credit/debit card users have to register online with their banks, giving personal and card details. They will then be given a PIN or password to be be used as an additional layer of security at the checkout point before completion of the transaction.

So, if you did not know about this directive, and wonder as to why your card does not seem to work online anymore, now you know the reasons for the same. So, go ahead, and contact your bank for getting the confirmation. As to whether this is fool-proof, only time will tell.

Another case, person gets bill for ‘ghost’ credit card

ashish — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:14:37 +0000

It happens again and again. A person either has not accepted the credit card that was provided to him even when he had not requested the credit card, or he was charged for some amount where he did not make the transactions. Mistakes can happen, even though in cases of a financial nature, one would expect a much greater deal of carefulness on the part of the bank. However, what really takes the cake is when the bank refuses to come clean, or behaves in a manner that is totally against accepted consumer service behavior:

Paresh Karia (30), the owner of Jeetendra General Store, a grocery shop near Sonapur Lane in Kurla (W), was in for a shock when he received an ABN Amro credit card statement for June showing Rs 44,900 as due. Karia claimed that he never received the credit card. Karia said he approached the bank several times, but they did not reply. The bank allegedly did not even respond to his advocates’ letters. According to him, the bank has even started sending notices and making calls. “In the last two months, I have received over 15 calls from the bank’s recovery department, threatening me and demanding repayment of the dues and the late fees.”
He said, “In April, one of the bank’s telemarketing executive called me, asking me to apply for the bank’s credit card. At first, I refused, but the executive kept calling me, after which, I took the card. In May, the executive took my signature on the form, and took documents like PAN card and my HSBC Bank statement.” After 15 days, Karia received a confirmation call from the bank to verify the documents. However, Karia refused to give the details on phone and asked the executive to come down to his shop. “The next day, I received a parcel from the bank,” said Karia.

From time to time, the RBI and various Consumer forums have asked banks and other financial institutions to behave, and many times charged penalties, but these incidents keep on happening. It will come to a time when courts will actually start hauling executives of the banks before the court, like a court almost did to the ICICI Chief.

Lost credit card – report early

ashish — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:17:46 +0000

Say you are out shopping, and you do not notice that your purse of wallet has got stolen, or that you left it somewhere ? And somebody unscrupulous picks up your card and makes some large purchases in the time period that you have not reported the loss ? Well, then you are out of luck. As per major banks, your liability ends when you have reported the card stolen. Not yet declared the card stolen, or postponed for some time ? Well, then you are responsible for purchases made on the card. The twist is when you have found the card stolen, but need some time to hunt down the hotline number and go through the card stolen routine with the call-center ? As you will read, it is possible for a fast thief to use the card to make some heavy purchases in that time period, and leave you holding the bill:

Delhi’s Nishi Uttam recently complained that her wallet, which carried an ABN Amro Bank debit card, was stolen at a shopping mall. It took her 15 minutes to figure out how to report the loss to the bank’s helpline. Unfortunately, during this interim period, says Uttam, the card was fraudulently used by a man to buy jewellery worth Rs 36,000. She thus filed an FIR with the police, too.
In a written statement, ABN Amro Bank explains its stand on such cases: “…if the transactions have been made prior to reporting of the loss to the bank, then the liability rests with the customer to whom the card has been issued. This is as per the terms and conditions under which the card is issued.”Typically, banks tread this line in such cases, even as a senior Delhi banker concedes it would well take “10-15 minutes to run and report a loss complaint”.

In such cases, the customer is normally at the receiving end. It is not so easy to realize that your card is missing, or keep the card number and the hotline number handy, and it may take some time to get through the normally busy bank call center; and this much time may be enough to get some big items bought in your name. What are the solutions ?
1. Report a loss as early as possible
2. Keep the card number in your mobile phone
3. Keep the bank call center number in your mobile phone
4. Do not take this casually, and be sure to file the FIR as well when you find a loss of money