I have been using an ICICI bank credit card which was offered to me "free of cost" when my personal loan was approved. I didn’t realise that it was just one more trick to keep me in debt forever. I have had many bad incidents with the bank like the card not functioning at crucial moments out of my place of residence, the cash limit suddenly vanishing( though I have never used it so far), Absurd charges and interest rates being put on my card etc but the most recent incident was the last straw.
I had an outstanding balance of approximately 32000 on the card. My monthly payments have never been less than 3000.00 for a long time now. I had planned to pay 10000.00 for 3 months in a row in the coming months and close the card permanently.
Accordingly, I made a payment of RS: 10000.00 on the 2nd instant at Delhi. I then received an SMS stating I had an outstanding of only Rs: 5600.00 on the card and the rest of my payment is in excess.
I was surprised and thought that I had either won a lottery or some good soul had written off my debt.High hopes.
Somehow I was not comfortable. I then logged into the online statement facility and saw the following message
" EMI Conversion"
The bank, let alone my permission, didnt even care to intimate me and had converted my outstanding on the card to EMIs. And I was not even notified of it.
And because of this, even though I made a payment of Rs:10000.00, the rest of the money was showing up as an extra payment and was not even credited to my EMI.
I called the bank to enquire. I was informed by the Customer Care that the bank has the"right" to convert the outstanding into EMIs without intimating or taking permission from the customer and I could not do anything about it. When I spoke to the supervisor, I was informed that the only way I could cancel this conversion by settling the due amount in full immediately.
Since I didnt have all of 31000.00 I asked them to reduce the tenure of the EMI from 24 months( automatically decide d by the bank) to a shorter period of 6 months or so.
Even that was declined by the supervisor.
Now, even though I can make higher payments than my EMI, the bank wont take them, and I either need to collect the entire outstanding and finalise my account or keep paying the EMI for 2 years and of course pay an interest of 2.66% per month.
If anyone reading this has faced a similar situation, it would be very helpful if they could guide me on what to do to save myself from paying such absurd interest rates.
Needless to say, I will cancel my credit card once I done paying my dues.
Suggestions and help welcome.