- This topic has 54 replies, 33 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 3 months ago by
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UBack when I was a bright eyed 21 year old who just got his first paycheck, this slimy credit card salesman from a nationalized private bank approached me and told me I can take a card for zero maintenance fee (I don’t have any evidence for this though). I believed him and took the card. However, I prefer to not spend any money I don’t have and I didn’t swipe this stupid card even in one place.
A few months later, the credit card collection agency started calling me and saying that I have to pay some INR 500-1000 maintenance fee. I told them but the salesman said its zero maintenance card but they insisted that maintenance fee would have to be paid and maybe the salesman meant that its zero maintenance as long as I make certain amount of transaction. Since this is a fault from their side. Two or three times I tried to politely explain the situation to them. They raised a few complaints also but it never went anywhere other than someone calling me and asking the details about this issue.
Then, in true bank fashion, I started getting threatening calls. I had more than 5 lacs in my savings account at that point with the same bank (which they can see) and they are calling and threatening me, yelling at me for not paying back INR 1000. They were talking to me like I am some serial credit defaulter. I felt insulted and said rudely that I don’t intend to pay this back. He threatened to ruin my CIBIL score and I said fine because of my hurt ego.
I didn’t get any calls from them after that until last year (8 years later) when they called and said that the amount which was now INR 4825 is being held from my savings account and they would soon take it from me. I said fine again. One month later, they debited that amount from my savings account. I was tempted to pursue legal action but I thought it was not worth it for my mental peace. They got their money and I am not going to lose sleep over ~5000. I was planning to switch banks eventually to punish them for it.
Anyway, remember how I said that a collection agent told me he would mess with my CIBIL score and I told him to go ahead? Well, that’s exactly what he did folks. He reported it to CIBIL and my score is now bad. I do plan to apply for loans in the future so this is absolutely an issue.
I have already raised a complaint with the bank requesting them to strike this from the record. So I have two questions here:
1. Is there anyway I can quickly improve my CIBIL score?
2. Can I take any legal action against the bank for the mental distress this is causing me? The only evidence I have is the call recordings with the collection agents. Can they bury me with technicalities in T&C?
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UI left it out on purpose. Since I’ve asked the bank if they can resolve it, I want to see how that would play out and revealing that might reveal who I am and which issue this is. That’s why I also didn’t mention the name of the bank.
I’ll update it later on.
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CKinda odd you didn’t pay off the 500-1000 charges when they first informed you. I don’t know if bank will remove those late remarks or not since they’ll just say you missed out on payments for many years.
Something similar happened with my mom where she was sold with the pretext of no annual charges. She had only activated the card and didn’t use it as such. The card had a 500 rupees annual fee I think
Later, we found out via gpay that her cibil took a hit with two late remarks. We contacted the bank and they didn’t remove it. Regardless, this was 3-4 years ago and she’s maintained all her payments and everything since and her cibil is 750+ now.-
U>Kinda odd you didn’t pay off the 500-1000 charges when they first informed you.
Like I said, I was hoping they would correct the issue from their end. You have to understand from my side, I don’t owe them anything so there is no need for me to pay 500 for no reason.
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CNo, the thing is, that’s not how credit cards work. I have a card which charges around 3k for annual charges. That charge will be levied on the card even if I don’t use the card at all since I have activated the card. There’s a spend criteria for it to be waived off but that’s a different matter.
Now, if you have activated the card, you’re bound to pay the charges, unless you have in official communication that the card is actually charge free. Only then you can raise a dispute. Just saying the agent said it was LTF won’t work.
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SHi angry young man.former banker here. All loans(CC are a form if loan ) are reported by banks systems without human intervention…nobody does it personally just because they don’t like your face or mine.
Now that money has been debited yo your account, bank will update your CIBIL in 15data and you should be ok.
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UProblem is that I don’t have any other credit card or loans. The only transaction record in CIBIL history is this 5k so my score is low.
And FYI, it has been well over 15 days since they deducted the money. Its still the same low score.
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BThe payment history will be shown in his credit report for years . Even if he cleared the dues now the score will be low it will take months to go back up. For that to happen he needs to take some sort of loan like gold loan and pay it back to make a good track
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SNot necessary to take another loan..I have been a Credit officer and we have work arounds..All depends on how good the RM in convincing Credit
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BSince he have defaulted the payment I am pretty sure his cibil will be less than 700 . Once my bank marked one of my Auto emi as late by 1 day ( it was an issue with bank server due to financial year ending) my score dropped from 826 to 645 . I had to involve Rbi ombudsman to get it solved and RBI even made the bank pay me 70k as compensation. The fight was around 6 months and no credit or risk team Will approve a home loan or auto loan for a person with low score.. even in home loans and auto loans the intrest rate depands on score if the score is high the interest rate will get reduced by around point 5%
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SExceptions are there, i wont say no..but most risk officer see the full case profile..CIBIL score is one of the parameters. For eg..A customer needing a mini truck loan, has a contract with, say Blue dart for local deliveries and BD agrees to pay Instalments directly to financier, the loan can ne granted even if borrower may not be having any prior borrowing or CIBIL shows default during C OVID period, but subsequently settled. A Credit officer only needs to be convinced on genuinity of the proposal
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QThe mistake you made was to let bank deduct 5K. I say you approach banks internal ombudsman and demand for reversal of amount debited and also for waiver of all charges pertaining to that credit card. Since you have not used the cc at all. If banks internal ombudsman doesn’t agree with you(most likely to happen). Then approach the RBI banking ombudsman where chances of you winning are very high.
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QDoesn’t matter if he hasn’t used the card at all. RBI Ombudsman will rule in his favor. A couple of years ago, RBI came down on banks heavily in this matter. Am not saying he’ll win, but if I was in his position I would definitely try.
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UActually, that rule that if customer doesn’t use CC for 3 months , company will block it came last year only (if I remember correctly)and the OP issue OP mentioned dates back few years ago… Anyway u r right that escalation to RBI is a great weapon fpr public.
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UNAL
please file a complain with the banking ombudsman.
Credit Card is unsecured instrument, RBI guideline clearly states the liability lies with the bak offering the credit card. if you did not use the card then bank should have cancelled the card.
you also need to file a complain with National Consumer helpline for misinformation & wrongful charge.
I think you should get your money back.
and don’t worry about CIBIL, first get the matter sorted with the back and then you can file a complain with CIBIL for wrong report and get the details updated
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DYour lack of understanding of credit card business and general lack of awareness is the problem. No one screwed you over. You screwed yourself because you were dumb.
If they had started charging you then the only thing you had to do was to call the customer service and cancel the CC and cut it up. That’s it. Nothing would’ve happened if you had done that.
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U>If they had started charging you then the only thing you had to do was to call the customer service and cancel the CC and cut it up. That’s it. Nothing would’ve happened if you had done that.
Did that. Still owe them 5k and that’s the reason for reducing CIBIL score
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UMy friend, I suggest you read the original post once again and re-read what you said above. You said.
1. I should have called the customer service (I did)
2. I should have canceled the CC (I didn’t have to do that. They did it)
3. Cut it up (Yes of course I did)
You didn’t mention anything about paying the bill. I didn’t pay it. It was deducted from my account by them.
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UYour cibil is low because you did not pay the account maintenance bill, which would simply show up as missed payment in cibil.
I understand your point that you believe it was the bank’s fault to levy the charges since they informed you it was a lifetime free card, but these systems are automated. Cibil doesn’t know what happened between you and the bank. All it would see is that an amount was unpaid and was accruing interest and hence your scores were impacted.
The good news is that the cibil score does go up. Get a credit card for yourself. Use it diligently and responsibly and it will drive your score up.
As far as the legal case is concerned, it would be of no help. You do not have proof and banks can drown you in technicalities, since there could have been fine print that maintenance charges will only be eliminated if you spend a certain amount yearly.
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CLook at the amount of money the parents spent on your education. Now add that Rs 4,825/- to it. Consider it a very cheap deal to learn a little bit about finance, banking and life.
Rs 4,825 is a deal for lessons of life.
Ask yourself, What did I learn from this? Procrastination? Reading the TnC? Reading the literature (if any) when the card was delivered?
What you can do is change banks. Do not close your account. Convert it into a zero balance account and keep nothing in that account.
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CThis is just the beginning. The way you’re behaving and being insecure will land you in more trouble.
You’re live proof that anyone can scam you with some words but you will disrespect people who are trying to help you.
You’ve given consent, crucial details to unknown person but deleted your credit score which was crucial factor for us to help you.
Instead of taking advice and learning, you’re defending yourself shamelessly.
Anyways, pay the remaining bill if any. Wait for 1 month to get CIBIL updated automatically. Speak to helpline about any hidden services or charges and confirm those via e-mail. Keep the card if it’s suitable for you else get that cancelled.
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UCibil gets refreshed every few months only. Also would suggest you to start using the credit card if you still have it (no mention of the same) and buy things on emi and pay it regularly. 6 months on you should be back on track. Or if you have already closed your savings account and opening in a new bank use that opportunity to get a new card based on the account or a fd backed card.
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UThe stupidity at the best didn’t mind to check the tnc for the charges on the card and didn’t bother to check outstanding balance , I don’t think your card is closed unless you paid the outstanding balance. Don’t worry about the collection guy just pay the balance and assume it as charges for your expensive lesson you can’t escape it .
All this would have gone away if you have noticed tnc or else paid next year and closed the card they would have reversed the charges and asked you to continue using the card and close it next year -
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EIt seems you are still that naive young kid that you were 8-9 years ago. The bank played by the book and it was your stupidity, laziness and misplaced EGO that got you in this mess!
Cool down…. And take it as a lesson learnt and slowly build up your Cibil score again. Start reading up on basic financial concepts. Learn how credit works and also learn about investments.
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BWhen you received the credit card didn’t you read the welcome letter? It would have cleared mentioned the joining fees, Annual fee, Bill date , Due date and other charges like late fee details etc… if you had read that you wouldn’t be in this situation. Right now your option is to pay off the debt and start using the card properly to bring your score back up. It will take months to recover the score ..
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QI don’t know if there are any banks that could issue the credit card now with the score you have(as we don’t know the current score) if they could, then you could use it every month and make the prompt payment to shoot up the score for a few months.
Or, you can avail gold loan of some lesser amount and close it in 15-20 days(might take 2 or 3 such turns), this should also work.
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UNAL but an ex banker
First off, reach out to banking ombudsman like others said. If the same bank has ur savings and FDs, just visit the branch manager and tell him you are taking your business elsewhere. For just this 5k rs, there is a high possibility that it will be waived off and card will be canceled as it is not a big amount and change in comparison to lakhs in savings.
Secondly don’t worry about the CIBIL score. Within a couple of years, it will go to 0 or -1 if you don’t use any debt instrument during that time. Even if you do, regular payments will get your cibil on track soon enough.
If you plan to take loans and CIBIL is low due to this credit card alone, most banks won’t really mind it. You can show proof of funds in your savings during that period and that the claim that the amount was wrongfully charged will be considered by other loans (only personal loan might need a bit more convincing, but any secured loan will not be an issue)
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