This is a sad story of my HDFC Credit card. I got this card and HDFC promised that there will be no annual fee on my life time free HDFC Credit card. I happily took this Card and then after 6 months of using the card, I saw a surprise on my Credit card statement. HDFC has put annual fees on my card.
I immediately called HDFC CC Dept and then told them abt this. This was way back in 2004-05 HDFC refused to waive the Anuual fees and said this is not a life time free credit card. I decided to Cancel the Card. I wrote a Credit Card Cancellation letter and put the letter and the Credit card in the HDFC ATM. I got no response/settlement letter from HDFC nor any CC statements from HDFC. I was under the impression that the card is cancelled.
After 6 Months, suddenly HDFC woke up and sent a statement putting some huge amount (Rs 2000 Odd.) containing late fees+Interest+annual fees etc... I called them up and then I said I am not going to pay all these faaltu charges(late fees+Interest+annual fees etc.) I will pay only principal charges if any I have actually charged on the card.
They said there was some Rs 150 I had charged on the card which is not paid. I agreed to pay it and they said they will send a boy to collect the same. I said I need the settlement letter after I make the Principal statement. Next day the boy came and gave me a reciept of payment. I asked him for the settlement letter, he said keep the reciept and then HDFC will send the settlement letter. I believed him but I didnt get any settlement letter from HDFC. after a few months I started getting calls from HDFC Recovery department saying that I have to pay some Rs.3000 Odd and they were real Cheapos talking very Rashly and stupidly like fish market people, I had to keep repeating my story again & again to each person who called me.
This really got frustating and after a couple of years, I had applied for a Citibank card(I think in 2008) and it got rejected due to cibil credit history, I called up cibil(info@cibil.com) and they mentioned that there was some amount pending with HDFC CC and it need to be settled and HDFC has to ask Cibil to remove my name from the Cibil Database(DB)
I called up HDFC to settle my account. I said I am ready to pay Rs1220 and get the settlement letter as well as get my name removed from defaulters list. In fact I was ready to pay the amount that they had requested i.e Rs 2600+. They are saying I need to pay Rs.10000 to get my name removed from CIBIL. This is totally unfair and they are misusing customers decency. Can Cibil take some action and make sure Banks like HDFC doesn’t do such kind of Dadagiri and pester and cause unncesessary troubles and take undue advantage of the situation.
Hope I can get some justice.
Finally, I paid Rs2800 as settlement amount to HDFC recovery department(I wnt to their office and paid it) and got a settlement letter. But they have still not removed my name from the CIBIL Database.