I had the Standard Chartered Gold card and was using the same here in Pune.
I made a transaction of Rs. 13000/- (approximately) on 31st Dec. 2004. Within the next few days I got an email from the Stan Chart Bank which gave me the option to convert the above mentioned Transaction Amount to an EMI scheme simply by replying YES to that email. The email also had details of the available Tenures and their corresponding EMIs.
I called up Stan Chart Customer Care and asked them, what if I paid the entrie amount in one go or an amount more than the decided EMI, even though I have opted for the EMI option. To this they replied by saying that it would not be a problem and the next EMI would be calculated only on the outstanding amount.
This seemed great and I took up the option. However, by the end of Jan 2005, I paid back the full amount to them. However, when I received my February Statement, it still had some calculations (which only God would understand!) and it showed me a huge out-standing amount of about 10, 000/- (if I remember correctly) plus an annual fee. I had gotten this card from my Company and it was suppossed to be a life-time free card. So I called up Customer Care and asked them to Cancel my Card as I was not ready to pay the Annual Fee and also I didn’t have any dues on my card (or so I thought...).
They said my request would be forwarded. Then I didn’t hear anything form them until the next month (March) when I got the next statement that had late fees charged on it! Then I started calling up Customer Care but they said my card could not be cancelled as I had an outstanding amount!!! This they told me after 2 months...which I didn’t understand.
Anyways...after a lot of calls and e-mails...one of their Customer Care representatives was informed enough to tell me that the following had occured:
I opted for the EMI option.
A seperate EMI ACCOUNT was opened for this.
When I made the full payment at the end of JAN, it was Credited to my Regular Credit Card A/c. and not to the EMI ACCOUNT.
Hence the EMI ACCOUNT kept being debited and there was a Credit Balance lying in my Regular Credit Card A/c.
No one from Customer Care had been courteous/informed enough to tell me that when I made a payment...i needed to specify that it was for my so-called EMI ACCOUNT!!!!!
At the end of the day, I was forced to shell out Rs. 1, 300/- more for no reason at all. These were an accumilation of Late Charges and who knows what!
It is the worst experience I have ever had :-(