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.
What does this actually mean?
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
But why 3 consecutive deductions?
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!
The Complete Story of my Friend and many others!
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!
Is this Ethical?
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.
What should you do?
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:
- One it’s really difficult to get through the maze of options to get a human voice and most of the time it really does not help!
- The time and money you would spend on call and follow ups would be worth more than Rs 28.09
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.
How to Prevent?
There are few things you should take care while using your debit card:
- Carry only the debit cards you use regularly. Why create confusion and un-necessary risk by carrying multiple cards?
- Know your balance before making any payment
- Switch to banks that do not have such charges
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!
I got Rs 885 deducted in total in a single day.
I have also been charged ATMDEC/POSDEC charge three times. I checked my ATM card in various machines .It said my card was “blocked” After email to their helpline, they replied it was all right. Now this bombshell . they have charged for a transaction that I did not do.
I have been charged 28.75 INR 105 times, I repeat 105 times because of insufficient funds, for a card that was already blocked! It was because some auto payment was enabled. The charges were taken after I had blocked my card!
Please advice how to reverse the charges!
Call customer care they might reverse it
This happened to me as well….ICICI bank is the worlds No. 1 ****** bank…they squeeze money from customers for eveything…I going to discontinue my account with them after horrible 8 years
This happened with me too. ICICI bank deducted four times 28.75 for the trans. of 239.76 petrol charges, when the balance was 1494. Really a bad practice.
For donkey work they did free in the time of Demonetisation, they are now compensating for the same.
So friends, should not our account be credited with some amount when their ATM machines shows us insufficient funds. these banks are just making money using a cheap idea.
i totally agree with you!
i have checked my account after make one Card payment. its really shocking,6 times I found that 28.75 rs had been deducted. I tried to call customer care, i never ever see that worst service in banking sector. Better i need to change to any other nationalized bank. HOW CAN I REVERSE IT???.
YOu can’t do much about it other than being careful in future or changing your bank!
i got my figures burnt today with the same ICICI bank. tried contacting the customer support but no help at all. i wonder why then call them customer support. five times they charged me consequently. why cant they send or display a msg that the funds are insufficient. I am planning to shift to other nationalized bank instead of struggling with this UNETHICAL ICICI Pvt bank. Mr Amit can you kindly suggest me a good bank where customers are not taken for granted. Iam thinking of SBI, how good is SBI in comparison to ICICI
All banks operate as cartel in India. You will find lot of unreasonable charges both in government/private bank. The only thing is to be careful and try to avoid these charges as much as possible.
ICICI is full of thieves
Very unfortunate. We have such a system. Today I also got the same debit from ICICI Bank and I was trying to find out what it is. Now I realise I have tried using my ICICI bank credit card. Just because of the keys on the swapping machine of the trader was not proper, one digit was not pressed properly and I got a pin error and transaction decline. If the bank is not charged anything for such failed transaction by VISA/Master/AMex, such charges by ICICI bank cannot be justified.
I agree with you— these are unethical charges!
With out my notice they have dedicated 3 times 28.09… this his very bad for the ICICI bank, i will change my bank account to nationalised bank.
This is easy money that banks resort to climb the annual revenue ladder by taking money out of savings bank customers.
thats true!
They are fooling General Public and RBI ….Just Imagine deducting such amounts from say 1 million account gradually in a year ….how much money they are making …………………….To get number of account in ICICI refrence the following “We have around 18.5 million zero basic savings bank deposit accounts and by the end of this year, we expect to have close to 20 million such accounts,” said Rajiv Sabharwal, executive director, ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector lender.
Man simply multipying 1 million out of 18.5 …these people would make 1 million bucks……RBI is sleeping I think …..
The banking service in India is getting worse with lot of hidden charges and random deductions from savings account! Agree RBI does not care much…
i agree with you, we need to case on those banks, who ever are doing like this. without sms/mail they don’t need to deduct any money from bank..
Me too got the same issue but through online recharge due to network issued it declined for that they charged around 28 rupees. NO ONE TO ASK ?????
You can tweet to ICICI Bank or talk to there customer care.
Hdfc has deducted POSDEC CHG 13 times from my account. I tried to register complain but no action is taken by bank. they also have charged 999 rupees for international transaction for purchased of an application from google play. I am really frustrated from such practices of bank so i transfer my whole money into my another bank account and tried to close it but by the time I submit application for close my account they charged me for not maintaining average minimum balance and asking me to deposit money in my account. Should I left my account empty without closing it. Please suggest..
I totally understand your frustration with these unethical banking charges. It’s better to close the account but in case you think its too much of hassle you can withdraw entire amount and leave the account as it is. As per RBI guidelines balance in savings account cannot be negative.
Yes i have checked my ICICI saving account balance and found that 28.80 rs had been deducted not one times but five times…..
I have only one objection that they should inform by giving simple sms so we were aware about that…
Totally agree with you. This is unethical on ICICI part. Contact there customer care and you might get these amount reversed!
I have checked my account of ICICI and the same POSDEC CHG has been charged. I have always maintained the MAB in my account and still I don’t understand the reason for this additional charges.
Contact them on twitter or customer care!