Order-26.
Date-16/12/2015.
In this complaint Complainant Bibhudatta Mohanty by filing this complaint has submitted that he is the holder of HDFC Credit Card No. 4346781013451158 for last few years and he has never been a defaulter in his payments before in respect of the said credit card.
In fact complainant was approached and persuaded by the representative of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd. (HDFC Life) in January-2012, over phone, for a policy No.14874498, setter date 27.01.2012 subject to payment of premium of Rs. 18,000/- p.a. and having Maturity benefit of Rs. 1,40,865/- and accidental benefit of Rs. 1,40,865/- and death benefit of Rs. 1,40, 865/- through his credit card and he was assured that he will get EMI facility to pay it back to the HDFC Bank Credit Card Department for which complainant agreed and the amount was deducted from his credit card towards the payment of premium and it is a perfect coordination between the two sister concerns of the HDFC and complainant had to pay it in 12 EMI per year at a very high rate of interest and he went on paying it for two years.
That the third premium stated in January 2014 and complainant expected that this should also be paid up with due interest in the form of 12 EMIs as it happened during the last two years, as he was assured the same while being persuaded to accept the policy over phone and he has always been paying his dues sincerely in due time, during those three years, until September 2014 and he always paid the minimum amount due by the HDFC bank and even more than that as reflected in his credit card statement.
Unfortunately he discovered from the statement sent to him on October, 2012 that he still had a total amount of Rs. 25,741/- which was totally beyond all his calculations as he expected that the premium with its interest, should be paid by December, 2014, like the previous two years, so that another premium for the next year would start from January 2015.
In the above situation complainant called the customer care number to find out why that happened and why he should pay exorbitant rates of interest and finance charges, but he did not get any satisfactory answer.So, he has stopped paying further bills while waiting for the above explanation and sent E-mail letter to the HDFC Bank Credit Card Division on 25.11.2014 but their reply dated 27.11.2014 was not satisfactory and he did not answer the question raised by the complainant and complainant received several phone calls from HDFC Bank asking the complainant to pay the dues and they have also deputed some persons to forcibly recover the same which is completely against the RBI Rules and op harassed the complainant without any reason and for which the complainant has filed this complaint for relief, compensation etc.
On the other hand op no.2 by filing written statement submitted that in or about January 2012 the op company received a duly filled up and signed proposal form of the complainant from its corporate agent i.e. HDFC Bank for issuance of a HDFC Life Sampoorna Samridhi Insurance Plan in favour of the complainant and complainant chose to pay the premium amount through his Credit Card of HDFC Bank and in usual course it is being deducted and deposited to the op Insurance Company and accordingly op issued a policy being No.14874498 in favour of the complainant and policy term is 11 years with an annual premium of Rs. 17,725/- excluding tax payable for 11 years and original policy document was duly dispatched to the complainant on 30.01.2012 via Sri Chakra Transtech Courier POD No. ZE1626259, which was duly received by him and op never received any request for cancellation from the complainant within free look period.So, it is clear that complainant being satisfied collecting the policy but somehow after payment of first to third premium failed and neglected to pay subsequent premium for which the subject policy got paid up as per the terms and conditions of the policy.So, there is no deficiency and negligence on the part of the Insurance Company.
On the other hand op no.1 by filing written statement submitted as per request of the complainant, Credit Card was issued vide Credit Card No.4346781013451158 and as per Credit Card Agreement, complainant has guided by the terms and conditions of the said credit card and usual practice is that the Credit Card Holder shall use his credit card and bank will raise monthly bills to the user which he shall have to pay within a certain period of time and if the credit card user fails to pay any amount or makes part payment of the entire amount he shall be charged interest on the amount not paid by him along with other charges as would be mentioned in the Card Member Agreement and the complainant has made repeated defaults in paying the bills and thereby caused grave and irreparable loss to the op/bank and the outstanding amount is Rs. 39,356.56/- which is due and payable by the complainant in respect of his credit card bearing no. 4346781013451158.But complainant made a concocted story only for wrongful gain and escaping the liability of his payment.But it is well known fact that penalty and other penal charges were levied on the card account if repayment was not made in time and fact remains that op no.1 Bank issued several demand notices for clearing the outstanding dues but that has not been paid.
Regardingthe allegation as made by the complainant against op no.1, Bank is not tenable and fact remains that all the allegations against the HDFC Insurance Company and in respect of that the op no.1 is not liable to answer and present complaint is completely false and fabricated against the op no.1.So, the complaint should be dismissed.
Decision with reasons
On proper consideration of the complaint and written version and also considering the materials on record and the argument as advanced by the complainant and the Ld. Lawyer for the ops, it is clear that complainant purchased one policy from the HDFC Insurance Company.From the Balance Sheet, the Credit Card statement dated 15.01.2013, it appears that it is found that Rs. 18,000/- was deducted from the Credit Card of the complainant to HDFC Standard Life Com Mumbai.Similarly it is found that Rs. 18,835/- was deducted through his credit card as per statement on 25.03.2013 against HDFC Ergo Premium and no doubt complainant used the said credit card which is evident from the statement as supplied by the op to the complainant and no doubt complainant received those statements because it was sent to the address which was given by the complainant.similarly it is found from the statement dated 25.01.2014 that Rs. 18,000/- was credited to HDFC Standard Life Com Mumbai in the month of January-2014 from the credit card account and up to 25.09.2014 as per credit card statement, it appears that total dues of the complainant is Rs.25,741.14 paisa and that was increased month by month for non-payment and admitted fact is that complainant has not been paying the arrear dues for his sales tax, service tax, late fees, tax finance charges which are calculated and amount has become higher and higher as outstanding.But from the schedule of the credit card agreement.It is clear that complainant never paid premium of the said policy by EMIs and as per policy condition, we find that there was no contract in between the complainant and Insurance Company for payment of the early premium by EMIs and no such instruction was given by the complainant to the op no.2 or op no.2 also did not send any such proposal to the complainant and op never accepted such proposal and never intimated the fact for sending the said amount by installment to the HDFC Bank.
Most interesting factor is that complainant used that credit card for different type of payment up to 2014, thereafter complainant did not pay the outstanding dues.So, over the outstanding dues different charges were charged as per credit card agreement and in this regard there is no deficiency on the part of bank.
At the same time the allegation of the complainant against the Insurance Company is that Insurance Company assured him that the early premium of Rs. 18,000/- shall be paid by installment is not at all proved but on the other hand it is found that after Sept. 2014 complainant did not pay the next premium for which that insurance policy is already lapsed and for which we cannot anyway hold that there was negligence or deficiency on the part of the op Insurance Company or HDFC Bank.
Similarly considering the materials on record and the documents, we find that there is no such material to prove by the complainant that there was any contract in between the bank or the insurance company for payment of the said total premium of Rs. 18,000/- by 12 EMIs per year and it is no doubt a concocted story of the complainant and truth is that no evidence is produced by the complainant to prove that there was any contract or agreement in between the complainant and ops that the said total amount of Rs. 18,000/- as premium would be made by 12 EMIs per year and at the same time the statement of account of the complainant’s credit card also shows that bank never deducted any premium per month on EMI basis for payment of early premium of Rs. 18,000/- but in each year in the month of January Rs.18,000/- was deducted from the credit card account of the complainant and it was transmitted and debited to the account of the Insurance Company of the complainant to the account of the op Insurance Company.
Considering all the above materials on record and facts, we find that the entire allegation as made by the complainant against the op is proved baseless and without any foundation.But payment from credit card was made yearly and that was the contract in between the complainant and insurance company.So, we do not find any merit in this case when complainant has miserably failed to prove any sort of deficiency or negligence or any sort of unfair trade practice practiced by the ops for which this complaint fails.
Hence, it is
Ordered,
That the complaint be and the same is dismissed on contest against the ops without any cost.
