Customers decry arbitrary debits by Nigerian banks

Some customers of various banks have decried the financial institutions’ continuous arbitrary debit of their money. In separate interviews on Sunday in Abuja, the bank customers said the move negated the financial inclusion initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Claudia Albert, a customer with Sterling Bank, said the bank had debited about N6,000 from her account this month. Ms Albert said the development was frustrating, worrisome and discouraging, urging the bank and other banks to refund the debited funds and desist from the act as it could discourage customers from patronising them. ”My bank debited N5,207.50 from my account on August 12 and tagged it ‘Sterling Bill Payment Mobile and IBS Bills’. The bank also withdrew another N752.50 and called it an SMS notification charge for 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,” Ms Albert said.

Another customer, Chioma Ekezie, a Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) customer, said her bank had failed to refund her money for some unsuccessful transactions. She said that although she had visited the bank’s branches to fill out forms to facilitate the reversal, her efforts had proved abortive. ”The bank has failed to refund my money from my failed transactions even when I have gone there tireless times. This is very bad, and it made me withdraw all my serious savings from the bank,” she said. Bernard Isaac, a customer with First Bank Plc, said she had received numerous unauthorised debit alerts from her bank. He said he had also received unnecessary debit alerts for charges from the bank, saying the development was unacceptable. ”Banks should not be robbing Peter to pay Paul; it is we, the customers, that suffer in all these,” he said. Another customer with Access Bank appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to check excesses of banks to their customers with a view to addressing them. Bank officials contacted to react to the development did not respond to messages sent to their phones, nor did they answer calls at the time of the report. (NAN)