[Resolved]  ICICIcredit Card — Lien against closed loan

Sir,

I am Kishore Vasudevan and this complaint pertains to a grievance against ICICI bank credit card division for blocking my savings account against a card to which I have paid all my dues in December 2007.

Bank account number[protected]
Credit card number [protected]

I had cleared my due of 75257 as on December 2007 (which includes the regular outstanding and the EMIs) for the credit card and stopped using it.

The total due amount of 75257 (which was said inclusive of all the charges of the bank) was told by the customer service, when I inquired about my total liability towards the card, to make it zero.

The January 2008 statement showed a credit balance and did not inform me of any dues to the bank. I inquired about the credit balance mentioned in the statement and I was not given proper explanation and I was told it would be under process and to ignore the statement if I have cleared the dues.

As I was confused about the continuous statements which showed the credit balance I once again inquired about the same in November 2008 and I was not given proper explanation and moreover, I was not informed about any dues pending from my end.

After this call I ignored all the statements which I received as I had paid my dues including all the charges to the bank.

After 2 long years, in December 2009, a lien was marked in my salary account. When I asked for the reason I am informed that I have not placed a request for the Foreclosure of the loan and this is the cause for the charges in the card.

I informed the bank that I have cleared the entire dues including the foreclosure charges for the EMI option and asked the bank for the breakup. After continuous escalation I was informed by the Head Service Quality that there was actually an outstanding of Rs. 6030 in the principle amount when I closed the loan and its non-payment has attracted the bank charges.

My claim regarding this issue is, I was never informed about the outstanding in the principle amount in any of my follow up calls or in any of the collection calls or in the statement which I received after making the full payment.

This is the result of negligence of the bank executives down the line from the executive (who gave me a wrong amount) to the collection executives (which will be always a fresh call without any previous history and failing to give the exact feedback of the issue from the customer to the bank) till the head service quality (who keeps repeating, I did not call or inquire after making the payment even after there is call record in November 2008 ). The humorous part in this is after this issue is already under the preview of “ICICI Ombudsman” and is in the process of getting escalated to “RBI Ombudsman”, I got a collection call from ICICI on Friday March 12, 2010. As usual the executive was unaware of the previous history in the card and when I started explaining the issue to her, she got confused and informed me that she will discuss with her manager and will get back to me in 5 minutes which again did not happen as expected.

The departments in ICICI never seem to work as a team towards handling customer grievances. However, they have marked a lien on a salary account which was opened in Hyderabad in June 2009 against a card taken and closed in Bangalore in December 2007.

The Questions which are not answered regarding this issue by the bank:

1. As a customer I may not be aware of all the formalities followed in the bank. When I make a purchase I get numerous marketing calls to convert it into an EMI; why is the same service not provided when I close the loan?
2. When the bank has received a payment more than which a customer should pay; why there was no inquiry done regarding the excess payment even after having records of my calls regarding the closure of the loan?

The break up given by the bank in February 2010 is as follows:

As on December 27, 2007, the total amount outstanding on your credit card account including the EMI principle, foreclosure fee and applicable service taxes was Rs. Appended the break up:

Particulars Amount
Total amount due as per the statement of December 18, 2007 Rs. 8,705.09
EMI Principle amount due as on December 27, 2007 Rs. 69,079.24
Foreclosure Fee @ 3% Rs. 2,072.38
Service tax @ 12.36% Rs. 256.14
EMI interest Rs. 1,045.23
Service tax @ 12.36% Rs.129.19
Total outstanding as on December 27, 2007 ( A ) Rs. 81,287.27
Payment received on December 31, 2007 ( B ) Rs. 75,257.00
Total principle amount unpaid till date ( A – B ) Rs. 6,030.27



I am unable to understand why the executive informed me of an amount of Rs.75257 if it was Rs.81287 or why was I never informed about this amount till date when I asked a break up for the amount of Rs.75257 to confirm if the foreclosure fees had been taken by the bank.
Sir, the bank did not inform me about the full amount to be paid and Rs.6030 remained unpaid, as per the information received from the head service quality of ICICI bank in Feb 2010. They now require me to pay a whopping Rs.28000, to be able to use my savings account.

Request you to please assist me in coming out of this great financial and mental strain caused by the negligence of the customer care executives of ICICI Bank.

Thanking you,

Regards,
Kishore Vasudevan
Email : [protected]@yahoo.co.in
[protected]