By Babajide Komolafe

“My ATM card will expire December 2014 and to my surprise, the sum of N1000 and N500 were deducted from my account twice this month (October) for new ATM card. The first deduction was on the 17th while the second one was yesterday 29th of October. Is it not supposed to be N1000?   How am I going to get my money back?

The above complaint by a bank customer was featured in the last edition, and we promised to investigate it. The bank confirmed that it usually renews the ATM cards of its customers before the expiry date, and that it charges N1000 for this.

This, it said, however applies only to active cards i.e. the customer must be using the card regularly. So, if the card is to expire December 31st 2014, and it is an active card, the bank will automatically renew it some weeks before the expiry date (12 weeks as in the case above).

And debit the customer for N1000. Why? This is because sometimes, the customer may travel or forget that the card has expired and tried to use it, only to be told that the card has expired.

Definitely, this can be embarrassing and costly.  I know the case of a woman who wanted to use her card to withdraw cash for an urgent family need, only  for the ATM to inform her that the card has expired. She had to go to the branch where the account was domiciled to complete form for another card, wait for twenty four hours before she could use the card again. This is the stress and embarrassment the bank does not want its customers to experience.

The reality is that many bank customers don’t know that their ATM card have expiry date. And this applies to customers who seldom use their ATM card. Even the internet banking token provided by banks have expiry date and it is your duty to always check for the expiry date every time you have to use it. While renewing the card and debiting the customer ahead of the expiry date is good, banks can improve on this by sending text message to remind the customer that his card would soon expire, or to inform him before renewing the card and debiting the customer’s account.

Now in the case of cards that are not active i.e. cards that the customer never used between the times it was issued and the expiry date, the bank explained that it does not do renewal for such cards. The customer would have to physically visit the bank and complete form for another card to be issued.

The bank, however, explained that the incidence of debiting the customer N1000 and N500 for card renewal twice was an error, which occurred when it had system failure. And such debits were reversed immediately the system failure was solved.

The above is a lesson for prospective bank customers, the millions of Nigerians that would soon have to choose a bank, courtesy of the financial inclusion drive of the CBN to ensure that millions of unbanked Nigerians are banked. While the banks would promise to offer the best and most efficient services, occasional errors and service failures should be expected.

This is because the services are rendered by imperfect staff, in environment replete with infrastructural deficiency and regular breakdowns. However, whenever you experience such failures, you have to exercise your right to quality services by complaining in order to get redress. However, you need to be familiar with the channels provided for bank customers to make complaints against poor banking services. This would be discussed in the next edition.