Watch out for Banks pushing ATM cum Debit Cards and charging annual fees

Bank fined for charging man for service he didn’t ask for

Rebecca Samervel TNN

Mumbai: The Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on Tuesday held IDBI Bank Ltd. guilty of deficiency in service for issuing an ‘ATM-cum-debit card’ instead of an exclusive ATM card to its customer and charging him for it.
The forum directed the bank to pay Rs 25,000 to the complainant, Juhu resident Krishna Pandey, as compensation and cost of proceedings.
“Before selling a product to a prospective customer, the bank should have secured his willingness,” observed the forum, adding that instead of taking the customer’s consent, the bank “foisted the facility upon the complainant”.
In 2001, Krishna and his wife Suman opened a joint account with the bank’s Khar branch following which IDBI issued two exclusive ATM cards to the couple—one in Krishna’s name and another in Suman’s. The cards were valid till December 2006.
The card issued to Suman had to be replaced as it malfunctioned. Suman’s new card, too, had to be replaced due to malfunctioning. However, this time the bank issued an ‘ATMcum-debit card’ instead of the exclusive ATM card and startedlevying a yearly feeof Rs110.
Krishna approached the bank and told the officials that hehad never askedfor an ‘ATMcum-debit card’. He requested the bank to issue him an exclusiveATMcard,buthis plea was turned down. The bank said it stopped issuing exclusive ATM cards in 2003. On October 23, 2007, Krishna filed a complaint in the consumer forum.