Saving bank accounts can have lot of hidden charges which most of the times we are not aware of. A few days back one of my friends was looking at his ICICI Bank statement and found 3 consecutive deductions of Rs 28.09 with the description of POSDEC CHG/11-06-14/8833/25ST3. As happens most of the times it’s almost impossible to figure out what this alien description meant!
A little research and asking friends revealed that POSDEC CHG means Point of Sale Decline Charges.
This means you tried using your debit card for paying something at the merchant but the transaction was declined due to insufficient funds in the account.
Also Read: 22 Hidden Charges in Saving Bank Account
This is what happens at the merchant side. You gave your debit card for payment. The transaction gets declined but you and the merchant does not know the reason for decline. As most of the times network failure/ wrong pin etc are responsible. So the merchant swipes the card multiple times but every time it’s declined! The unfortunate part ICICI deducts this POSDEC CHG of Rs 28.09 for every swipe! So in my friend’s case it was tried 3 times and hence there are 3 consecutive deductions!
My friend had gone to his usual departmental store for his regular purchase and gave his ICICI debit card for payment. The problem was he had 2 accounts with ICICI Bank and by mistake he gave the card which did not have sufficient funds. The transaction did not go through the card so he paid by cash and moved on. He only realized his mistake when he got to see these charges after more than a month in his statement! I am sure this can happen to lot many people especially who have multiple cards of the same bank!
As a customer I find these charges completely unethical and then series of deduction for the same transaction – I have no words!
It’s not like all the transactions that are declined are because of insufficient funds. On the contrary the most declines are due to network issues! But how a customer can know the decline reason?
The bank should have either sent SMS to the customer that the decline is due to insufficient funds or may have charged only once for one transaction.
In such cases “prevention is better than cure”. So if such charges are reflecting in your statement you can talk to ICICI call center executive and tell him to reverse these charges. You have two problems here:
A simple Google search and you would see multiple complaints regarding such charges online. In one extreme case I found the customer was charged 19 consecutive times probably for the same transaction!
RBI wants to encourage payments through Debit/credit cards but such practices by banks would be highly detrimental! Probably some rules/clarifications from RBI regarding these unethical charges might help.
There are few things you should take care while using your debit card:
Do you know of other banks who have such unethical practices or have you or your friends gone through this? If yes please leave comment to make everyone aware of such practices!
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June 4, 2020 today I was charged 11 times Rs 29.50 for it. I have not used my debit card since April, May and June 2020, I did not swipe my card anywhere, not even once during lockdown, however ICICI charged me 11 times today. This is very unethical practice.
I was charged for 3 times. Rs.29.50. Not even made any transaction. How come the bank can deduct without any transaction. Icici is becoming fraudulent bank.
This is purely unethical I’m charged almost 50 times same way within a day
I was charged over 4-5 times due to this unethical practice by icici and I haven't used my card for a long time too.I find it VERY disappointing and unsatisfactory where the bank does these kind of stuff and not even alert the customers about it. Shame on you icici for doing such fraudulent things. Shame on you for taking away our hard earned money just like that.
Same thing happen to me but for me 1600+ rs has debited for me while i am adding Netflix but it is not a proper way to icici bank .i think icici bank goes to fraud bank . without any intimation every one money was detected in month of april . everyone should take necessary action on it
Same issues I have face I will switch to another bank who is not having such hidden charges
Today its unsafe with ICICI Bank, they have become looters be careful and safeguard money from ICICI, a big emerging fraudster, we should drag this decision maker out and make their life miserable, what happens if any of us have an EMI and we miss out to check and we donot get any alerts of these deductions and none of these call centres are bothered to pick our calls bxxxxxx.... in a single day how can they deduct 14 times assholes.
Today if they come up with posdec charges, tomorrow they might fiddle and take all our hard earned money, its better to remove this fraudulent service provider and opt another reliable source, this fraud may set a example for others so better transfer all money from this account
i have been charged more than 10 times, its unethical and we should take necessary legal action and completely refrain using ICICI account going forward. lot of other banks services are ethical and reliable when compared, iam going to remove this bank account and add another bank account for phonepay google transaction and even change my current account as well savings account, moreover being a business unit iam going to change all the salary account from ICICI. I will advice my other friends in the same line.
I have charged 25 times when I was trying to pay for Netflix.