Me ICICI & CIBIL

Once upon a time way back in 2004 I was offered a credit card by ICICI Bank… I’m a big user of the plastic and I use it for my personal needs and also to settle my company bills… My normal use every month was around Rs.80,000/- and I promptly settle my dues on or before the due date…

 

Everything was going fine until I got an offer from SBI Bank Card for a 3 month interest free balance transfer… I thought it was an attractive offer and opted to take it up and I received a Cheque from SBI from their Delhi office… Then I promptly presented in ICICI bank 15 days before my due date and received an acknowledgement from ICICI bank…

 

Then I was shocked to see my next ICICI statement which had late payment fee, Interest and service tax… On verification I came to know they presented the Cheque 2 days before the due date and the Cheque got realized after 10 days from the date it was presented which was not my mistake…

 

I took it to all levels of their Customer Support people with all documents but they didn’t try to solve the issue instead they asked me to repay due which was around Rs.5000/-… After some time they started sending Collection agents for collection and every time I had to show them the acknowledgement slip… Over a point they started disturbing thru phone calls and sending agents to office and to my house… I thought I must take this legally but my friends said paying a lawyer fee for this amount is not a good idea…

 

Then during the year 2006 I wanted to purchase a Plot of land by taking a loan and my loan was rejected… Only then I came to know about CIBIL and I was told I was a defaulter… It was then I realized my mistake of not taking ICICI legally… Even at that point I had an opportunity to file a suit but at the cost of forgoing my investment plan… I tried to convince the other bank with all valid receipts and explanation… Even they didn’t accept my genuine case and asked me to settle my dues with ICICI first…

 

Then I was forced to make a settlement with ICICI and with the settlement letter I got my loan passed…

 

Now a year back I applied for a personal loan which got rejected stating that I was a defaulter… Now even after 2 years of making a settlement CIBIL has not removed my name from their database and in future too I’ve to undergo the irony of my loans getting rejected…

 

I was penalized for a mistake of an ICICI employee for presenting my Cheque late and for not taking legal action on time which worries me till date…

 

Now there is even more bad news for us… CIBIL is currently available only for Banks & Financial institutions and RBI has given them approval to provide service to other industry verticals like Telecom and Insurance… This means late payments of premiums and telephone / mobile bills will also be added to our credit history…

 

CIBIL is definitely a better system but they must evolve themselves quickly fix genuine cases too…

 

After a long time with the help of Money Today magazine go an answer to my problem to remove my name from CIBIL… I tried one of their recommendations and it was not effective and must try the second one… They have recommended two options;

 

• Request the bank to take note of the changes and report it to CIBIL… (Tried without luck)…
• Get the control number of your credit report from bank, then contact the CIBIL helpdesk (1800-224-225), quote this number and register the error…