By Admin 
Debit Card: A consumer court in Kerala has held Federal Bank guilty regarding its services. The case is of a customer whose international debit card was blocked by the bank without informing him. Due to which he could not use the lounge facility of Kuwait Airport with his wife and children. The special thing was that there was enough money in his bank account.
What is the whole matter?
Actually, Paul, who complained about the matter, is an NRE customer of Federal Bank since 2015. The bank had given him an international debit card, whose validity was till December 2023. On this card, facilities like free entry in domestic and international airport lounges were available. He was using this card since 2018. While returning to Kochi from Kuwait with his family, he used the card at the International Lounge of Kuwait Airport, but the payment through the card failed. Card Failure message appeared on the screen. After this, Paul, his wife and children could not enter the lounge.
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Paul told that he had enough money in his account, so he did not keep much cash or any other payment mode. Due to sudden non-functioning of the card, he and his family had to face a lot of trouble and mental stress abroad.
The bank gave clarification
On this matter, Federal Bank said that on August 10, 2021, a security related alert was received from MasterCard. It was feared that the card information could be compromised. The bank said that it was necessary to block the card to protect the customer from fraud. The bank said that they had informed the customer about this through SMS.
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What did the Consumer Commission say?
The commission said that Paul had not demanded issuance of a new card nor had he given consent to block the old card before its validity ended. The bank also did not prove that the customer was reliably informed about the card being blocked and the new card being issued.
After which the Commission ordered the bank to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation for mental distress, hardship and stress and Rs 25,000 as litigation expenses.