[Resolved]  HDFC Bank — illegal bank charges

Dear Sir,

This is with regards to a loan my brother took out in the year 2007 against his credit card from HDFC. The total loan repayments (per month installments) worked out to be Rs.25000 (approx) but the Co. (HDFC) fraudulently confiscated Rs.43000 (approx) which I am further going to explain how.

The installments of Rs.1086 each started on April 2007 for a loan amount of Rs. 22000 & were to go on for 24 months (until April 2009). We used to receive our statement each month & used to make regular payments to the bank until August 2007 when we didn’t receive our statement. My brother forgot to make the payment for that particular month in time & also because the statement was necessary to make the right payment because it used to carry the credit card transactions as well. Like any other person he thought he'd make the payment altogether once he'd receive the statement. But much to his dismay the bank instead of taking the onus of not sending the statement in time charged him some late payment fees, finance charges, etc. accounting to around Rs.350 next month. Now we're quite righteous (not sure if there's any value to this word these days or not) & believe in justice & would rather not pay any undue amount to anyone. So my brother disputed that amount & spoke to the customer services people who further asked him make an immediate payment of Rs.2100 to avoid any such charges & my brother obliged & did as was bid.

But what ensued then was a phase of trouble for our entire family. We started getting harassment calls from the recovery department of HDFC (calling themselves HDFC staff) we ignored all that until it went over board & I finally reported this to the police over the phone. I gave them the no. from which we were getting such calls. Believe it or not, it felt the people who were harassing us were real degenerates who've come from a hideous background. It stopped finally when, I believe, the police intervened.

Again, from November '07 the bank started levying more charges on us each month starting with Rs.674 for that month alone. We decided to ignore all this and kept paying the original monthly installment religiously. But next year again we started getting calls from the recovery agents to collect the pending amount as per the bank's records. My brother finally decided to pay them what they asked for and settle it once & for all. The people who called up assured us that this would be settled if we agree to pay them the amount straight away. My brother agreed & asked the person to come over at a convenient time to collect the amount. But somebody from the collection dept HDFC came over on a weekday when all the men in the house were at work & my mother paid Rs. 500 to them without realizing that there wasn’t any receipt given to her. We always believed in them being the bank staff as they used to call us on the pretense of being the bank staff & thought all their calls are recorded, after all we're not an investigation Co. who'd wrangle with them. Again, our problem didn’t end there, and we kept getting those calls from the bank & again my brother decided to pay them a full and final amount to settle it. This time he played smart and asked them to visit our father's shop where our father would take care of everything. My father ensured that the person who came gave us the receipt signed a letter saying it's a settlement figure, and also signed a note written on the receipt stating it's a final amount. We again paid him Rs.500 (the person's name was Sanjay) thinking that this would end it all. But yet again, we started getting calls as according to them it still wasn’t the settlement figure (though the receipt clearly said "valid only for full & final settlement if supported by the bank letter"). I appreciate we did not receive any bank settlement letter but we trusted the bank every time they tried to settle things & they assured us that we'd get the NOC letter soon & then if they were not willing to settle things why did they deceive us into paying them the undue amount & why did they give us the receipt which stated it's valid only for full & final settlement. Finally when there were only 4 months left to pay the rest of the installments we were asked to pay all the installments in one go and the case will be settled. But this time we decided not to listen to what they had to say & we kept on paying them each month. We paid them in full except that they had not encashed our last cheque (for some reasons not known to us, perhaps it's another trap).

And now after about 2.5 years when my brother joined a new Co., who had their employees' accounts with HDFC, got a salary A/c with HDFC & to our shock the bank tracked his A/c & because the amount according to them was never settled (because they have learnt some different accounts & maths & perhaps not been educated on morals). They blocked an amount of Rs.14548.85 in my brother's salary A/c with HDFC & sent a notice to him asked him to clear that amount otherwise they'd anyways debit it from his A/c on the 08/09/2009. My brother called up on the numbers mentioned on the notice sent to us & spoke to the concerned people. They first said that an approval has come for a settlement amount of Rs.3500 which my brother agreed to pay at once because he was sick & tired by now fighting & arguing, with these obnoxious elements of our society, for over 2.5 years now. But they called up after sometime & blatantly asked to pay Rs.7400 now because the approval for the previous amount had been apparently rejected. My brother didn’t agree to it & admonished them that he'd take a legal action against them. But they finally debited the amount on the 08/09/2009 even after making umpteen promises that the case would be settled at Rs.3500.

But now we're looking for justice. For a late payment fee of Rs.350 (which was in dispute) we ended up paying Rs.15000 (extra).

My question is if we have a dispute on something which has not yet been settled, have these banks the right to accumulate the amount and make a snowball out of it?
Have these banks the right to mislead customers?
Can these banks never be at fault because they're these so called huge private organizations?
Have these banks the right to torture & harass consumers?
Should we stay away from these banks that are always on a look out for a prey that they can trap in this vicious circle?
Do they have the right to hire goons who can go to the extent of extorting money from people by threatening them of dire consequences?

We've paid nearly Rs.44000 for an amount that ideally should have been Rs.25722. It's around 100% more than the actual amount.

I call it theft or robbery or fraud & I want justice. I want an action to be taken against HDFC for the mental torture & harassment they've caused to my family.

I can furnish all the records whenever required. Look forward to getting a positive response on this.

Kind Regards

Sumit Kapoor