I have been following up with SBI Credit cards ever since I was hounded and coaxed into signing up for SBI credit card by one of their sales representatives around two years ago. It is a matter of grave concern - how the common consumer like me is subject to apathetic treatment at the hands of the credit cards officials and the ordeal one has to go through, requesting them for the reversal of the multitude of the continuously compounding charges indiscriminately dumped one’s account.

Very unwilling to enter into a relationship with SBI, I was dumped with an SBI card around two years back. The very first payment kick started this entire painful story of following up with the pathetic SBI customer care which never responded. The cheque payment was never picked from the drop box apparently due to an employee union strike which was on that point in time. The non-receipt of the same was never intimated to me in time. I was contacted only after being levied with fines, chares and service taxes. For the subsequent usage on my card, I insisted that I will only pay for the principal amount for which I used the card and not for the unfair charges. Every payment done by me was adjusted first against the interest and charges, resulting in constant compounding of the principal outstanding on me. I got in touch with the customer care on numerous occasions and have also spoken with 3 different GE-SBI representatives from their Gurgaon office. Upon being promised that this issue will be closed I paid Rs.5100 earlier this year in Feb. Again my parents were constantly called and harassed by the collection agencies insisting on recovery of more dues.

Finally, to stop this harassment forever I had to pay up Rs. 4163 on Oct 23rd after hearing about the tactics that the recovery agencies resort to, which could have been a cause of concern while there is no-one to handle the situation at my parents place.

The amount paid by me to SBI exceeds the amount I used the card for by Rs. 4624.00. After all this, they had the courage to call me today requesting me to carry on with this relationship. Is it appalling to see how a bank hopes to still make more business after denying proper customer service which is a consumer’s right, and at that harassing him instead of apologizing…using its might, knowing that it is the bank which always wins the battle against the common consumer who has greater worries in life than to follow up on such matters.