Have been the customer of ICICI credit card since January 2008.I havebeen a good customer and I have never made a late payment .But fromSeptember 2008 onwards I get calls from ICICI credit card telling thatI have won a ICICI LOMBARD health card .I said I am not interested init since my company already provides me and my dependent parents with aTTK card.
Moreover we use homeo medicines in the family which my Fatherhimself prescibe and we don’t have much medical expenses.I kept ongetting these calls but I denied them all time.In December 2008 I got acall from one Ms Shweta of ICICI Chennai from the number +914442842222telling that I have won an ICICI Lombard health card.I repeated thesame thing , but she told me that they have already issued the healthcard in my Mothers name and I need to confirm my moms name in the nextcall that is to come.
When I asked how could they issue a health card inmy Mothers name, she apologized for the inconvenience caused and toldthat once I get the health card I just need to cancel it by calling hernumber and I won’t be levied of any charges.She said that when I tookthe credit card they had given me a Lombard health card with it and mycredit balance of 18, 000 is locked with it .
Inorder for me to use thelocked 18, 000 credit limit I have to take the card and cancel it.Ididn’t want to increase my credit limit and I have never requested so.Igot two calls after 5 minutes each asking my Mothers name .After 1month I got a LOMBARD health card .I tried to reach Shweta on thisnumber but I could get to her only after one more month ie somewhere inFebruary.She apologized that she has been on leave and told me that shewould cancel the Lombard card right away.I gave her the Lombard cardNumber and she said that she has raised a request to cancel it.I askedher what is the need of sending the LOMBARD card to me when she coulfhave cancelled it herself.
She told me that I could show it as aninvestment and get tax reduction.I smelled something bad and didn’t doit because if I am cancelling the card how could it be aninvestment.She also told me that I won’t be levied of any charges.Butfrom the next month onwards I started getting ICICI LOMBARD in thecredit card statement.I tried to reach Shweta but her number is notreachable now.I paid all other transactions except for the ICICILOMBARD one and called the ICICI customer care and told that I amstopping to use their card and I want to cancel it.They say that Ican’t cancel it and there is a transaction of 16, 000 made on it forICICI LOMBARD.16, 000 is a huge sum for a middle class man like me.Itold them that I have never authorized any of them to use my creditcard neither do I have signed any papers of ICICI LOMBARD.They say thatI have to talk to ICICI LOMBARD customer care about this.
I reachedICICI LOMBARD customer care , but they are telling me that thetransaction was made on my authorization.This drama between ICICICredit card customer care and LOMBARD customer care continued andfinally I was loosing so much time on it and I couldn’t workproperly.Since there are many Layoffs happening I kept that asideconcentrated on the work.But the ICICI guys keep calling and harassingme .One day I got a notice from CIBIL that my non-payment of creditcard bills have been added to their database and it will affect me infuture.I told this truth to the CIBIL people but they said that I haveto sort it out ICICI credit card itself.
I enquired about this incident and I came to know that I am not theonly innocent victim of this cheating by ICICI credit card and ICICILOMBARD .There were , are and will be still be many unless someone doessomething about it.They usually catch working middle class people likeus who don’t have time and money to fight against big banks like them.Icould put goto consumer court with this , but I fear the losing of myjob .I think the government has to do something about this kind ofcheating or else Indian banks will also fall like those in US.I believeits not right for ICICI to use their customers money to sell their ownunsold products.How is the transaction authorized by me if I haven’tsigned on any LOMBARD agreement form, neither have I swiped my creditcard .i am sure that in the agreement I have signed for ICICI creditthere was no term that they could share my credit card information orother private information with anyone.Even if they have shared it withanother of their department its a case of fraudulent use of credit card.