On 18 August, 2014 ICICI bank charged me an amount of INR 28.09 for redemption of payback points which ICICI bank provides to its saving bank account holders complimentary on each transaction. Ironically, I haven’t used those points and was credited back onto the payback account and that was way 2 months back on 18 June, 2014. When I asked ICICI bank customer care officer (Vishal) they were not able to explain. They even disconnected my call after putting me on hold for about 15 minutes. This happened twice. Third time, they said that the charges are applicable but were not in a condition to explain when it has been informed to me. They also promised that I will receive a call within 24 hrs to explain this but it’s been a week and I haven’t received any. I raised a service request (SR334739314) as well for which I get a single liner reply “Debit of Rs.28.09 on 18-Aug-2014 is in favor of REEDEMPTION OF PAYBACK POINTS ONLINE”. I have following questions on this transaction:
1> Why is ICICI bank is charging amount on usage of reward points which is complimentary and not even asked by their customer?
2> Why did ICICI bank not informed about the charges applicable on usage of payback points? This is not even mentioned on their website nor did I ever receive any mail or SMS regarding the charges.
3> If I didn’t used the points, why is ICICI bank charging me and that too after 2 months?
I have a salary account in ICICI bank for last 7 years and I never face these kinds of charges. It seems like ICICI bank is trying to loot its valuable and trusted customers by applying these kinds of hidden and uninformed charges.
False Charges for Payback point redemption
Comments
34 responses to “False Charges for Payback point redemption”
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Even I faced the same issue. A debit of 28.09rs happened from my account on 28th August for using the payback points and I have hardly used those points and also even I have the salary account with icici bank since 4 years…….cannot believe they are using such strange methods to loot their valuable customers. And why the hell can’t they inform regrading these charges in advance through an email or SMS notification
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A total amount of Rs. 28.09*2 = Rs. 56.18 has been debited from my account on 28th August, 2014 for reward point redemption through Payback Points under MySavings Rewards Program. I have two issues regarding this deduction.
1. No communication was made about this charge and its applicability, even the ICICI website shows till date that there are no charges on MySavings Reward Program (http://www.icicibank.com/Personal-Banking/faq/detail.page?identifier=prod-about-mysavings-rewards-20140901124650392). I incurred this charge for an expense of Rs. 5*2 = Rs. 10, (total loss being Rs. 46.18) which no person in his sane mind will incur if he was informed beforehand.
2. The charges were applied for two transactions, one dated 10th July, 2014, and the other, 29th July, 2014. There was a gap of ~50 days and ~30 days for the charge deduction. If the charge was deducted right away, I wouldn’t have repeated the same mistake twice, i.e. wouldn’t have gone for a similar transaction on 29th July.No response from ICICI yet, raised a complaint with them on 31st August, 2014.
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ICICI bank customer care is not even serious about this issue. Its been 10 days still I don’t see any reply from ICICI bank side. I am sure a lot of other people have also complained but since there is no unity/communication among the complainants ICICI bank is taking undue advantage and making money out of them. Its not a matter of just 29 or 50 rupees but when you think from lakhs of customers, you would understand how much money ICICI bank is making by cheating all of them. I suggest we should file a proper case in consumer forum instead of writing here to force them to return our money.
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Dear Sir,
We regret any inconvenience faced. We have made a note of your service reference number. Our official will contact you and assist.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team -
Its been 2 days since ICICI bank customer care has replied here but I haven’t received any call, mail, sms or money back. Again a false promise. Doesn’t matter, I have already started the process to shift my salary account to some other bank and soon will close every connection with ICICI bank.
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I received this mail today from ICICI Customer Care, in response to my complaint.
Dear Mr. Ray,
We thank you for writing to us.
We regret the inability to reverse the redemption charges towards reward points as they are correctly levied in your account.
We look forward to a long term relationship with you.
Sincerely,
Vasavi M
Office of Head Customer Service
ICICI Bank Limited.There is no clarification on the points I had raised, like why no communication was sent, why the charges were levied late, why their website still shows that no charge is applicable etc. I fully agree that this should be raised to consumer court, because this is not a question of money but of breach of trust, and taking customer complaint most casually.
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While my lawyer is preparing to file complaint in consumer forum against ICICI Bank, I suggest everyone here to pass this information of cheating strategy of ICICI Bank to as many people as possible and shift your account to other banks ASAP. Their are many banks available in the market which provide same (or better) services like ICICI Bank without cheating and breaking customer’s trust.
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Dear Sir (Uttam),
We are working on your complaint and will get back to you. An e-mail communication has been sent to you on September 8, 2014 vide case id 010-739-303.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team -
Dear Mr. Ray,
We regret any inconvenience faced. Please write to [email protected] with your contact details. Our official will assist you. Refer ‘224116_aaag’ in the subject line.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team -
Here is the reply from ICICI Bank:
“Dear Mr. Kumar,
We refer to your concern addressed to ICICI Bank.
We would like to inform you that the charges levied for the redemption of the Payback points as per the policy implemented by the Bank.
We would like to confirm that the fee is levied for every redemption of payback points. Hence, the amount of Rs. 28.09 was debited from your aforementioned account on August 18, 2014.
We would also like to inform you that the details about the reward redemption fee was sent to all our customers through e-mail in the month of May 2014, and it was also uploaded on our website.
It is truly unfortunate that the communication escaped your attention.
We affirm that ICICI Bank at all times acts with diligence, in good faith and in no manner prejudicial to the interests of its customers.”Its the same reply I had got when I contacted customer care, word by word. Seems like they are just reading some kind of manuscript without verifying the authenticity of statement. I had never received any such mail from ICICI bank regarding payback point redemption charges till now and they are claiming they had already informed. Similarly, they are claiming that the same information has also been uploaded on their website which is also false. Till date (11 September 2014), there is nothing related to payback redemption charges on their website. This has also been confirmed by other people as well. In-spite of this, ICICI bank is rigid on their stand and not returning the money which makes him a perfect fit to drag into the consumer court.
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I have already raised the concern and sent multiple mails to [email protected] and the last mail sent on Sept 09, 2014, is still awaiting a response from them. I don’t understand what difference it will make to raise it further with [email protected] once again. If ICICI was serious about my complaint, they had my account id and phone number, they could have contacted me on their own. Thing is they don’t want to address this concern and do away with the easy money they are earning by imposing such charges without informing the customer. Till date their website shows no charge applicable for payback points (http://www.icicibank.com/Personal-Banking/faq/detail.page?identifier=prod-about-mysavings-rewards) which seems proof enough of the way we are being cheated. Moreover, MySavings rewards is a complementary service, introduced recently, we never signed up for it when we opened our accounts with ICICI. Can they impose charges on such a service? Is it ethically correct?
I have already started moving my money to other banks, and I shall advise my friends to do the same.
@Uttam, please keep everyone posted on the status of the complaint you are raising with consumer court, so that all victims like us can use it as reference. Do let me know if you need any other relevant information regarding my case. My email communication with ICICI has the subject line “Re: ‘ICICICARE=010-724-638’ Re: 0002FaA02JXR315G:level2complaint/Savings Account” -
The whole issue is that Payback is not exclusive reward partner of ICICI. I earn payback points from multiple sources. Say in a month I earn 100 points of which points earned through ICICI would be only 10. Now suppose I redeem 50 points twice, its not right for ICICI bank to charge me twice.
Had they have an exclusive program they can charge, same practice is followed by HDFC, they also charge for redeeming points but they have an exclusive reward partner, not like ICICI.
ICICI is at fault and I have decided to minimize the use of ICICI cards going forward. -
Dear Mr. Kim,
We regret the inconvenience caused. A Redemption Handling Fee plus Service Tax will be charged on every redemption request for reward points earned on ICICI Bank Credit Cards, Debit Cards or MySavingsRewards, effective June 12, 2014. This has been communicated to our customers through e-mailers and statement inserts. For any clarification, you may write to [email protected] with your contact details. Our official will assist you. Refer ‘224116_aaal’ in the subject line.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team -
Thanks for copy pasting the reply.
The whole issue is how can you charge for payback redemption when we earn payback points from multiple sources.
Simple example, I earned 500 points from flipkart on my payback account and redeem these points.
How come you charge me for redeeming these points!!
Payback is not your exclusive reward partner. If you want to charge then you need to issue a new exclusive payback card to all users. You can’t charge for every redemption on the current card. -
Is there a way to delink ICICI savings account from the payback account ?
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Completely agree with Jim
How can they charge when I earned payback points from makemytrip and redeemed on makemytrip. ICICI bank was never involved in any of the transactions.
They are making money out of thin air.
I also had the same issue, raised SR348656743 -
I have been charged with Rs.99 + 12.24 service charges. The ICICI bank did not informed me before about such charges. They are openly telling to pay your dues or face penalty when ask about such charges. they even claim that they informed me about such charges which is non sense. I am using this card from last 10 yrs. Just lost faith in ICICI bank now. there customer care team is also very rude. they told me the process to close the credit card. Can any one, guide us further to take this issue with RBI.
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Best thing is open a separate payback account with any of payback partners (not ICICI) and start earning points on this new card. As for the points on your ICICI card, before their expiry (3 years) just transfer the ICICI payback points to the new account (which would not be linked to ICICI – hence no charges on redemption). Let me reiterate that you do not need an ICICI bank account to enrol in payback.
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Dear Sir (pank),
We regret the inconvenience caused. We request you to email us your concern with your contact details on [email protected]. Please mention the UID (i224116_aaar) in the subject line of your email. Our official will assist you.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team -
Even I faced the similar problem. Mine credit card is 10+ year old account with ICICI. Now a days it is easy to get 10 cards from different banks but I chose to stick to ICICI card in my life time. But bank didn’t bother and charged 112 Rs for redemption. What the hell of using the service. First you use card, earn paybak points and later pay 112 rs for redemption. Only thing I did is , I cancelled my card. Looser is ICICI bank as I am holding card since last 10 years and done transactions worth lacks of ruppes. I have trusted ICICI bank for past 10 years and was loyal customer.
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Even I faced the same issue, now I am planning to close all my bank accounts with ICICI, its a chor company now, else otherwise they were good bank, but have lost all the faith in ICICI now, have to transfer all my Inventments and all to a govt bank.
Its a scam, with ICICI, If there a way to delink paybak, please tell me. Even i posted it on twitter and facebook as ICICI Chor, deducting amount on behalf of payback.Regards,
Rajiv -
Also i have sent a formal consumer complain on http://core.nic.in/Complainant/Thanks.aspx?compid=140994.1.2015
Please launch a formal complain, then only they will be forced to do it.
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I have had similar experience. The phone banking official was not of much help. hence I have written to them.
I am icici customer for last 10 years and have savings account, demat account and credit card with them. bu now I have lost faith in them.
I would like to know if any of you got the charges reversed by them?
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Even i faced the same problem. I have been levied redemption fees without any prior intimation.
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Let’s change all our bank accounts to sbi and yes bank they are better than icici. And drag icici to consumer court for this . Let’s join hands . Please draft an application right now and before that transfer all your salary to another bank account . Keep only min in icici bank.
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Even I am facing the same problem. I have been levied redemption fees + Service Tax without any prior intimation.
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Even I am facing the same problem. I have been levied redemption fees + Service Tax without any prior intimation
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Even I am facing the same problem. I have been levied redemption fees + services tax without prior information.
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ICICI bank is not able to reply a simple question, why do they charge for redemption of points earned under other loyalty program?
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Hi,
Same issue here. I am completely disappointed with ICICI, ridiculous. How can they take money if I earn points form multiple sources? I did redemption many times like 30 , 40 Rs also without knowing, I was happy that I got 20 extra bucks without knowing 30 Rs looted from me..
Any solution for this?
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Same has happend with me as well. Is there any update on this or procedure to dlink the card.
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Hi ,
On 15 June, 2016 statement ICICI bank charged me an amount of INR 28.09 for redemption of payback points with Mobiqwik on 20 April 2016.
This means if you redeem 100 points for Rs. 20 you will be charged with Rs. 28.09 .
Shame on Icici Bank. looting customes in name of Rewards .what a Pity!!!
I had lodged complaint with seriesl No. SR418533133.
Thay called me once which i could not receive.And they closed the case sending e-mail “We are unable to process your request and are unable to contact you at the phone number as in our records. Please contact us at Customer Care” -
Dear Customer,
We regret any inconvenience caused. Our official will get in touch with you. We appreciate your patience.
Regards,
ICICI Bank Customer Service Team -
I have raised a conplain with Banking odumbsman on the same issue. Hope to hear from them.
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