Customers decry arbitrary debits by some banks
Some customers of various banks have decried the continuous arbitrary debit of their funds by their banks.
Some of them, who spoke to the newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, said the move negated the financial inclusion initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Mrs. Claudia Albert, a customer with Sterling Bank, said the bank had debited about N6,000 from her account just this month.
Albert said the development was frustrating, worrisome, and discouraging.
She urged the bank and other banks to refund the debited monies and also desist from the act as it could discourage customers from patronising them.
”My bank debited N5,207.50 from my account on Aug.12 and tagged it ‘Sterling Bill Payment Mobile and IBS Bills’.
”The bank also withdrew another N752.50 and called it SMS Notification Charge for the month of July.
”I can’t even remember all the monies they have been debiting from my account that I will be too busy to go and complain about.
”This is so unfair,” she said
Another customer, Mrs Chioma Ekezie, a customer with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) said that her bank had failed to refund her money for some of her unsuccessful transactions.
She said that although she had visited the bank’s branches to fill form to facilitate the reversal, her efforts had proved abortive.
”I cannot count my monies that are hanging in GTBank. The bank has failed to refund my money from my failed transactions, even though I have gone there tirelessly.
”Most times, I abandon my official work just to go to the bank to complain to them, but the more I try, the more they frustrate me.
”I became discouraged, and the phone that I was using crashed, so I lost the evidence of the money, but I believe it was there in their system.
”This is very bad, and it made me withdraw all my serious savings from the bank,” she said.
Mr Bernard Isaac, a customer with First Bank Plc, said she had received numerous unauthorised debit alerts from her bank.
He said that he had also received unnecessary debit alerts for charges from the bank.
Isaac said the development was unacceptable
”Banks should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul.
”It is we, the customers, that suffer in all these.
”I have never received a credit alert for money from my bank, but what they think of is to debit my own,” he said.
Another customer with Access Bank appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to check bank excesses with a view to addressing them.
Bank officials who were contacted to react to the development did not respond to messages sent to their phones, nor did they answer calls as of the time of the report.
