Credit Cards?

Question

Hi, I have been facing issues with bank for a while now . I have a credit card that I used last year and when I had a credit limit of Rupees 26000. In the month of December I agreed to settle my account with the bank and I was given a customer copy of the settlement deal I had with the bank. The settlement amount was 25400 and I was asked to pay this amount in 8 installments starting from December and ending in the month of July . The agent used to come to my house and he used to collect the money from me every month. I used to get a call every month and I used to pay them the money in cash . This happened till the month of April and by then I had cleared 5 of the installments. I was not contacted thereafter and neither was I given any information regarding the settlement .I suddenly received a call in the month of August wherein the lady from the collection department said that I have a due of Rupees 44000 and I need to pay the money . I just told the lady that I already have a settlement with the bank and I only have around 9500 due . The lady checked the details and agreed to what I said . She further asked me to wait for a call from her the very next day and said that she would be taking an approval from Bangalore and will be contacting me to inform me when to pay the remaining amount .I was not contacted . I did not get any information from them. I then received a call from the bank again in the month of September and this time they spoke to one of my family members stating that I have an overdue amount of rupees 44000 and the minimum amount that I need to pay is 2900. My family member simply asked the agent to ring me later on as I was in office . Again the same thing happened as I was not contacted again. I checked my account balance in the month of October and I saw that the amount of rupees 44000 was debited from my salary account . A few days later I again checked the account and the amount has now gone up to 88376. what i should do now

Answer 1

Dear Bhavana

Credit availed through a Card is always risky, unless you keep a track of the related bills, due dates, payment in time.  The credit cards come with lots of terms and conditions in fine print.  If your overshoot the due date, you are levied with late fee plus interest as applicable.  If you pay only the minimum amount due, you end up being charged with interest on the balance.  Your mail has not clarified, whether you obtained proper receipts for the cash given to the agent towards the monthly payments, as agreed with the bank.  If you were not given with the cash receipts for the 5 months, I have a hunch that the guy, who collected the amount from you, might not have remitted the same in the bank and even would have disappeared.  The best course for you is to forthwith meet with the bank / credit card recovery cell officials and find out the facts.  Otherwise, you would continue to receive calls from the bank for recovery and the dues would further be mounting.  Your settlement would have also gone for a toss, since post April, you defaulted in paying the monthly installment.  You have stated that the overdue has gone up to Rs.88376/-.  Please do not delay any further and get in touch with the Bank / credit card officials immediately, else Bank can initiate other punitive measures.

RAJA