Assam: Man forced to pay Rs. 12,388 for having only 6 paise outstanding on his SBI credit card

Silchar: In a bizarre incident reported from Assam's Silchar, a State Bank of India (SBI) customer with a balance of only six paise in his credit card account, was forced to pay Rs. 12,388 after compound interest accrued.

Anuar Hussain, the SBI customer in question, is now dashing off letters to prominent persons such as the Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India, and the Chief Minister of Assam, recounting his woes. Why did he lose Rs. 12,400 in his credit card account where he did not owe a single penny, he has asked.

In a written complaint, Anuar said he had no debt, which was confirmed in the bank statement. But the bank showed a nominal balance of six paise. That was in October last year. "The bank can auto-debit from my savings account if it wants, but did not. I didn't even use the card for a long time after that. Suddenly, on the 23rd of last month, the balance of those six paise soared to 12,388 rupees," he said.

He says that as soon as he got that message, he went to the bank and paid the full amount. However, the bankers could not give a reasonable explanation as to why he had to pay so much money for only six paise balance. 

It needs mention here that the interest rates charged on credit cards are very high when compared to other types of instant loans. Note that the outstanding balance due on a credit card gets charged at an interest rate of about 36 to 48 percent per annum, in case the cardholder is unable to repay the credit card bill on time.

Even though it varies from bank to bank, for cardholders who fail to repay the minimum amount due on their credit cards, an additional late payment fee of around Rs. 1,000 is charged.

With the nonpayment of a credit card bill on time or revolving the credit outstanding balance by paying only the minimum due amount, the card holder's credit score will get affected.

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