ICICI asked to pay Rs 4,000 compensation to credit card holder

Thane: The Thane District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (TDCDRF) has come down heavily on ICICI for its failure to cooperate with it in a case and gave an ex-parte order asking the bank to pay a compensation of Rs 4,000 to the aggrieved credit card holder.

In its order the Forum President M G Rahatgaonkar and member Jyoti Iyer observed that the bank had returned the notice sent by the forum to it. In view of this, it ordered a payment of Rs 2,000 for mental torture to the complainant and a sum of Rs 2000 as legal expenses.

The case relates to Vijay A Kusale, who in November 2006 procured a credit card from ICICI Bank with a spending limit of Rs. 37,000.

According to the complainant he made regular repayments on the card except during March 2010 on account of his father's illness.

He further said that following this he started receiving calls from collection agents of the Bank, namely Vaishnavi Associates for payment of money and settlement of the account.

Accordingly it was decided that a sum of Rs 11,000 would be paid in two installments and the agent will make available a settlement letter from the Bank.

The complainant said he wanted the letter in advance and was told that he should make the payment of the first installment following which it will be issued. Accordingly he made the payment of Rs 8000 and sought the letter from the bank which was denied.

Kusale reminded the agent for the letter but he was asked to for the balance money which was paid up.

Instead of receiving the letter of settlement he once again began getting calls from the bank for the payment of the balance amount.

Source: Financial Express