BEFORE A.P STATE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION AT HYDERABAD

F.A.No.738 

Between:

                                        M.Laxma Reddy S/o late M.Chandra Reddy
aged about 61 years, Occ: Business
Flat No.504, H.No.8-3-236/1, Murali Krishna Enclave
Yousufguda, Main Road, Hyderabad-045                                                                                       

1.  The Manager, HSBC Ltd.,
(Card Products Division)
52/60, M.G.Road, P.B.No.128
Mumbai

2.  The Manager,
HSBC Ltd., (Card Products Division)
Besides Jaya Gardens, Raj Bhavan Road
Somajiguda, Hyderabad-082

Counsel for the Appellant                         

Counsel for the Respondent 

QUORUM:  

                       SRI THOTA ASHOK KUMAR, HON’BLE MEMBER

 MONDAY THE ELEVANTH  

Oral Order (As per Sri R.Lakshminarasimha Rao, Hon’ble Member)

1.    `10,000/- and costs of`4,000/-, the complainant has filed appeal contending that the District Forum has not awarded appropriate amount as compensation and it has failed to see that the respondent-bank had charged finance charges @110% and that the appellant is an income tax assesse `20,00,000/- towards compensation.

2.              

3.            `329/- twice from the appellant and finance charges of`734.12 on the amount of the premium. On the advice of the respondent-bank, the appellant destroyed the credit card and the respondent-bank demanded the appellant to pay outstanding balance of`11,048.38 and if he fails to pay the amount, the respondent-bank threatened him that his name would be sent as defaulter to CIBIL. The respondent-bank demanded the appellant to pay a sum of`27,340.44.

4.            

5.            `329/- collected twice was refunded to the appellant and the same is reflected in the statement of account issued for the period from 26.11.2006 to 23.12.2006 and 25.12.2007 to 24.03.2007. The respondent-bank has not levied finance charges due to non-payment of premium of`329/-.Finance charges were levied for non-payment of outstanding balance 

6.              

7.            

8.            

9.            `329/- even after sending the statement with zero outstanding balance and after the credit card was destroyed.

10.            

11.           

12.    `329/-twice through the statement of account and finance charges on the premium amount whereas the respondent-bank would contend that the outstanding balance was zeroed in the credit card statement of the appellant as also in the month of Februay,2007 the statement of account was issued by making correction and not showing the premium as due from the appellant. It is contended that the finance charges were levied on the outstanding balance due which accumulated because of the appellant not making payment of the credit card account in full and no finance charges were levied on the premium shown in the statement of account for the period 26.09.2006 to 25.10.2006, 26.11.2006 to 23.12.2006 and 25.02.2007 to 24.03.2007.

13.   `11,048.38 and advised him to make payment of the amount as his credit card history would be retained at Credit Information Bureau of India Limited and on 17.04.2008 the respondent-bank informed the appellant that it would send his record to CIBIL Cancellation of the insurance policy by the appellant and refund of premium is stated in email dated 16.11.2009 as follows:

“Referring to your query with regards to the Tata AIG policy debited from your card account, we apologize for the delay in responding to your query. This policy was opened on 18.07.2006 with a free look period of 60 days.    

14.            

“Due to receipt of part-payments/delayed payments towards the card outstandingfrom the month of December 2006, the card account was levied with legitimate charges.

We draw your attention to the Credit Card Services Guide that explicitly states that if you wish to have the extended credit facility and pay HSC an amount less than the statement closing balance, the entire outstanding from the date of transaction will attract a finance charge.   

15.           `329/-. He has stated that:

“At last I received a statement for the period of 26^thth  

16.           

“From a perusal of credit card statement 26.09.2006 to 25.10.2006 which is filed by the complainant himself as additional documents and in which the complainant has clearly in his own handwriting has clearly written the amount he will be paying towards the purchases made.   

17.     

“I am (sic had ) requested you to please kindly made arrangements to send the Next bill statement to my mail, and also I want to know how could I get the credit card again from you, what is about my present card validity.  .” 

18.    

19.           `10,000/- awarded by the District Forum to`20,0000/-.

20.     

21.   

                                                                                                                                                      కె.ఎం.కె.*