SBI Credit card verification-Double standards

This post shares a little experience I had with SBI Credit cards. If the subject doesn’t interest you, check the March archives here.

I happened to apply for a SBI Credit card recently and everything went smooth till verification process. Here’s the story after the telephonic verification process began:

SBI Credit Card Call Centre Lady (CCL from now on): “Hello sir, I’m calling from SBI regarding your credit cards. I need to verify your name, address and other details sir…”

I gave the details and verification done. Then the CCL says “Sir you’ll be charged Rs 250 as one time fee and you’ll have to spend 25000 every year”

Me: “I wasn’t informed of this before. If this is the case please cancel my application, I don’t need it”
CCL: “Ok Sir”

Next I get the call from agent, who said “Sir it is free for you sir, don’t worry about it”
I got the call again, wherein CCL repeated the line stating the Rs 250 charge and 25k usage obligation. I said “I’m told it is free for me. You can process the application if it is free, else cancel it”

Next, the agent’s boss calls me to say “Sir, you just have to say yes when they mention about the fee and limit.. You’re working in a good company with good designation, it won’t be applicable to you. It is an RBI regulation which requires us to say that, as many users do not use their card and bank suffers a loss. You don’t worry sir, just say yes.. even if something is charged we’ll reverse it”

I replied “If it is free for me, then your representatives should state the same. Why am I being asked to accept some terms on record while you’re saying they’re not applicable to me”

Agent’s Boss: “Its an RBI requirement sir. Its Chennai level verification sir, they won’t be knowing that its free for you, they ask same thing to everyone. After that there’ll be national verification sir. You don’t have to worry, just say Yes”

Me: “If RBI regulation requires you to charge a user some money you charge it… Just that I don’t want a credit card with such obligations. I’m not comfortable with these double standards”

CCL gives another try, I stick to my line, asking her to process it if and only if it is completely free and free from any minimum usage obligations.

A different lady calls, doing the sweat talk again, rewording what Agent’s Boss had mentioned, suggesting that I should just accept to what the verification lady says and they’ll take care of everything. I reiterate my stand, she does some more sweet talk, I’m not convinced and I disconnect.
CCL calls again, I repeat my stand

Agent’s Boss calls again, asking “What seems to be the problem sir?” I wasn’t interested in wasting any more time on this and told him to cancel my application. There were some more calls after that which I didn’t take.

Did you face similar situation? They just wanted me to accept on record some terms I wasn’t comfortable with, while promising me off the record that these terms are not applicable to me. Do you think the verification process are a joke? Verification team seems to be awarded for the no of applications they process and not no of applications they reject (due to various reasons) Most of the time, if you do not know the details, reps would call you from an alternate no, give you all the details and call back from official no (which is recorded)..
Update: About one week later I get an sms from them stating my application is being processed…No idea what they’re upto… Need to tell them to back off…

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