[Resolved]  Centurion Bank Credit Card — Non receipt of monthly statement and refusal to withdraw unwarranted interest charges

Dear Sirs/Madams:

I received credit card no [protected] from M/s Centurion Bank of Punjab on 26.12.2007. I incurred an expenditure of Rs 4683.50 on the card on 8.10.2008. After that I did not receive any statement from the bank in November or December 2008 regarding payment due. Instead, I received an SMS message in early November 2008 stating that I had to pay Rs 4243.50 within two days. I paid the same by cheque believing it to be the full amount, not realising that it was short by Rs 440, as I did not have the credit slips readily available. The same was encashed on 5.11.2008. Then in January 2009, I received a statement from ICICI Bank (who had taken over Centurion Bank) claiming late payment and interest charges of Rs 1426.93. When I called the ICICI Bank Customer Care number, I was informed that Rs 440 was still pending. I paid that amount also and the same was acknowledged by ICICI Bank in their statement dated 16.2.2009.

However, till date, the bank continues to send me statements with mounting interest charges, presently coming to Rs 4849.44. Now, I fail to realise how a customer, who was not informed correctly about his payment due and to whom no statement was sent for two months (Nov and Dec 2008) after incurring expenditure the previous month (Oct 2008) can be treated as a defaulter and taken to task for no fault of his? When I called ICICI Bank Customer Care today (21.10.2009), I was informed that I still would have to pay Rs 1000 for settling the issue and the person threatened that my credit rating with his bank and other banks would be affected if I did not do so.

I have three other credit cards of ICICI Bank apart from that of HDFC and SBI and I have never been a defaulter in any of them. This particular instance is purely through the negligence of the bank and is not my fault. I request you to kindly take it up with the bank to waive the interest charges and treat the CBoP credit card as permanently cancelled. For your kind reference, the request no given by ICICI Bank Customer Care is SR[protected].

Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
T Gautaman
[protected]