This seems to be a fraud of a very large scale that I have unearthed. I will explain via an incident which happened with me.

THE DESIGN OF THE FRAUD
This probably has been designed by the bank superiors , and given the guise of Standard Chartered being a very caring and generous bank. The bank got creative, but its not fair to do this at the cost of customers. It is illegal and someone needs to go to jail for this, if found guilty. The call centre agents who pick up the phone and teh consumer department are probably not aware of this scam. The seniors are shooting from the poor call centre agents shoulders to protect their interests. The juniors are being made the scapegoats because they don’t care…all they care for is their bonuses.

WHAT IS THE SCAM ALL ABOUT
The scam is all about making money from interest charges from unsuspecting customers, by doing things at the bank's end, which ultimately appears to be the customers mistake.

HOW LARGESCALE IS THE SCAM
Quite largescale. I have spoken to others and have heard of similar stories.

WHO AM I?
I am just a small-time customer of the bank. But I have always made my payments on time. I have held a Credit Card since 1997 (when it was Grindlays Bank) and continued the relationship till date. I have also made regular payments on a Home Loan of Thirty Lakhs since 2001. Why did they choose me for this scam?

MY CASE – AN EXAMPLE
Here is my case. You may treat this as an example of the scam. If you need details of more customers undergoing a similar fate, I will get you those. I have 2 Credit Cards: a Platinum Card and a Gold Card. I have always made separate payments for these cards. Last month I had to pay Rs. 16182.43 for my Platinum Card and Rs. 8352.40 for my Gold Card. As always, I made these payments separately well on time. In my current statements for both cards, it is seen that the Gold Card is showing a double payment and the Platinum Card is showing a short payment. Why? Because the bank decided to apportion the larger payment of Rs. 16182.43 (which was clearly meant for the Platinum Carrd) between the 2 cards.

And here comes the cruel part: they have charged me an interest of Rs. 908.70 on the platinum card for not making the payment in full!!!!

SO I CALL UP THE CALL CENTRE
When I called, Poornima answered the phone. She told me that the bank is concerned that I do not “default” on the 2 cards ( I have never defaulted in the last 12 years) and hence apportioned the payment. Poornina even ‘advised’ me that next time onwards I should write on the back of the cheque “Please do not apportion the payment”. If both the payments are given to individual (clearly defined by the Credit Card No. in the “payee”) cards, why should I write such things in the back? And if I have to, why didn’t you tell me in advance? Why did you decide to do it this month and not earlier?

Poornima went on to say that she will have the interest charges reversed. That was so very easy. That happened even without speaking with a senior. That means that at Poornima’s level, she is authorised to take such decisions. If she is authorised to do so, then the seniors (who designed this scheme) must have designed it in such a manner that the matter is laid to rest at this level, very easily.

She also said that she will get the payments correctly adjusted between the 2 cards. If it is so easy for Poornima to adjust the payments and take these decisions, why did the bank in the first place make these adjustments when they received both the cheques, well in time before the due date? They say that they were concerned for me, and that is why they apportioned, when they received the first payment. But then they received the second payment. What stopped you from making the due adjustments. Is this not a nasty scheme to make money out of customers?

IT IS EXPENSIVE
The bank has a lot of money. But its senior executives are always under pressure to make more money….that’s how they get their fat bonuses. So these cheating schemes are tried out. A department like the call centre has to be run and salaries paid for. On the other side, a customer like me does not have the luxury of a department like the banks's call centre, to keep on arguing about these matters. That’s why such schemes work…because more often thank not, a customer will not fight. For me, it is very expensive (my man hour costs are high) to keep arguing about these illegal schemes and also to keep on recalculating my outstanding amounts. It creates a lot of mental agony. One cannot put a rupee value to such agony. Someone needs to pay for this by spending some time in a jail. That’s how I value such agony caused.