Caution: ABN Amro Credit Card Holders / Applicants. Review on ABN Amro Credit Card

*In case you are planning to subscribe to a new credit card from ABN Amro Bank then please read this.

In case you are already a holder of any credit card from ABN Amro Bank then please read this.

Unfortunately I hold one of the freedom credit cards from ABN Amro Bank since last 18 months. When I had applied for this card I was told that this is a “life time free” card. However I use only the ICICI Bank card which was the first card I ever possessed. But suddenly six months back, this so called life time free credit card became paid and I received an annual charge on my statement. When I called up the customer care to inquire, the response they gave was that it is a free card only if you use it – a condition which was never told to me at the time of application. However I assume it must be written in some asterisked line in hard to read font size in the application form which I had

duly signed accepting the terms and conditions.

So here the problem starts. “What’s the way out to not to pay this annual charges”, I asked. The customer care guy replied that if you spend Rs. 3000 using the card, you will gain some loyalty points which can be used to reverse the annual charges. I though that is easy and went on to spend Rs 3000 the very next day. But in the next statement I still received the annual charges plus the late fee plus the interest for not paying the annual charges. I paid the 3000 bucks I spent and called up customer care again for this matter. This time they gave me some request no. and said reversing will require some senior person’s acceptance which should be done. I agreed optimistically.

But sadly the next month I again received the annual charges as outstanding plus all the late fee and interests added. Fortunately they received my cheque which I dropped in their drop box. The drop box had to be located by doing a search on their site because the customer care didn’t know except for the bank’s own branch boxes. And for a city like Hyderabad which is considerable big, only 2 branches of ABN Amro do not suffice. This time I was again given a surety that the charges will be reversed. Still waiting for it to happen.

But even if I have to pay the annual charges, why should the payment be made? To a pathetic customer care service who are not able to provide correct information. Or to a worse system of credit card management by the bank itself which promises but does not deliver? Today most of the credit cards are free of annual charges (except premium cards) and charging an annual fee is like charging for incoming calls to your cell phone. Which world are you living in ABN Amro? You may be Dutch but this is India and here you need to do as the Indians want. If not learn from the SBI’s and ICICI’s.

And if you think I am the only dissatisfied person with ABN Amro  then please see a whole list of them here.

https://mouthshut.com/product-reviews/ABN_Amro_Credit_Card-925039254.html