SmartSave
TF Premier
THIS! If possible please get on Twitter under my tweet and reply. Tell them you too had faced this issue. They seem to believe their website has no issues and it's our problem for proceeding forward.
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Unmasking Deceptive Advertising: AU Small Finance Banks' SwipeUp Program and Its Impact on Credit Reports
- Thread starter SmartSave
- Start date
THIS! If possible please get on Twitter under my tweet and reply. Tell them you too had faced this issue. They seem to believe their website has no issues and it's our problem for proceeding forward.
RAMESH BABU N
TF Legend
emailing to head of CC is of little use. A big black hole. Sinks without a trace. I experienced his efficiency.
I suggest writing to PNO would be better. At least, 👍our concern would be read and some tangible action will get initiated. Write to PNO - as it is a whole-bank-level problem - and not to RNOs (for local, state-specific issues). PNO would normally take a week or two.
SmartSave
TF Premier
Head of CC never responded. PNO desk gives generic replies and that is why I had to escalate to RBI B.O. after they deliberately kept avoiding acknowledging the concerns raised.
This person I'm talking about is VP & Head of CC for Marketing, the guy responsible to run ads / lead the marketing and the website ads/other marketing materials I believe would come under his leadership.
SmartSave
TF Premier
Wohoo!! I just got a call from senior escalation and I'm in shock right now! This bank is literally engaging in what I would call it a fraudulent and malpractice. Unbelievable.
The guy called me regarding the RBI B.O. Complaint that was filed.
He tried hard till the end to make me confirm I provided the consent and I clearly stated I did not and when I asked him basic questions, he wouldn't answer or even aware of their own program.
Asked him how their SwipeUp program works, whether their system asked me for my first 6 digit number of other bank's credit card (it didn't) but he doesn't want to answer that and skips that part to tell me I gave my consent, went on to tell me I agreed to their terms, I countered I agreed to their SwipeUp program terms and nowhere in their SwipeUp program terms they mention any thing remotely about credit enquiry to which he goes silent and continues to avoid and repeats that I provided consent. At one point he said the SwipeUp program terms does mention about credit enquiry and I challenged him to show me where. He figured he made a mistake and back to square one of avoiding and saying I provided consent. The guy continues to say they can't remove the credit enquiry while I kept repeating my questions to answer the primary concerns about the technical glitch and misleading landing page, FAQs and even the terms.
He continued to avoid and just tells me they will revert to RBI with their facts.
But here's the shocker: The guy literally told me that's not how SwipeUp program works (not how the website says, does not ask for first 6 digit number -- yes he said that). Basically, what they advertise is not how it works it seems. When I caught him, he goes back to the "you gave the consent" point. I didn't expect an official from the bank would go down to this level. He has no clue about their own program, no idea about the terms of the program and casually says that's not how it works....and that's exactly what my concern has been, it does not work as it says. It never asked me for the 6 digit bin whereas the landing page says I have to provide one. See what happened?
By the sound of the conversation, I think they're going to partially submit facts and skip over all the primary things to just say I provided my consent and continue to avoid or acknowledge the primary concerns. I challenged him to attach call recordings of today as well as previous with their support where they themselves said the application had ended up as a normal one due to technical glitch and didn't come through SwipeUp program where as the guy says yes I applied through SwipeUp program and avoided the question of whether it's a normal application or not and that there is no technical glitch.
This should be an eye opener. I don't think I'm ever going to trust this bank. There's absolutely nothing to trust. Their official website continues to mislead, the person holding a senior position and representing their bank casually lies over the call, they continue to avoid and try to shift the blame on to the prospective customer. You think this is how a bank should operate?
The guy called me regarding the RBI B.O. Complaint that was filed.
He tried hard till the end to make me confirm I provided the consent and I clearly stated I did not and when I asked him basic questions, he wouldn't answer or even aware of their own program.
Asked him how their SwipeUp program works, whether their system asked me for my first 6 digit number of other bank's credit card (it didn't) but he doesn't want to answer that and skips that part to tell me I gave my consent, went on to tell me I agreed to their terms, I countered I agreed to their SwipeUp program terms and nowhere in their SwipeUp program terms they mention any thing remotely about credit enquiry to which he goes silent and continues to avoid and repeats that I provided consent. At one point he said the SwipeUp program terms does mention about credit enquiry and I challenged him to show me where. He figured he made a mistake and back to square one of avoiding and saying I provided consent. The guy continues to say they can't remove the credit enquiry while I kept repeating my questions to answer the primary concerns about the technical glitch and misleading landing page, FAQs and even the terms.
He continued to avoid and just tells me they will revert to RBI with their facts.
But here's the shocker: The guy literally told me that's not how SwipeUp program works (not how the website says, does not ask for first 6 digit number -- yes he said that). Basically, what they advertise is not how it works it seems. When I caught him, he goes back to the "you gave the consent" point. I didn't expect an official from the bank would go down to this level. He has no clue about their own program, no idea about the terms of the program and casually says that's not how it works....and that's exactly what my concern has been, it does not work as it says. It never asked me for the 6 digit bin whereas the landing page says I have to provide one. See what happened?
By the sound of the conversation, I think they're going to partially submit facts and skip over all the primary things to just say I provided my consent and continue to avoid or acknowledge the primary concerns. I challenged him to attach call recordings of today as well as previous with their support where they themselves said the application had ended up as a normal one due to technical glitch and didn't come through SwipeUp program where as the guy says yes I applied through SwipeUp program and avoided the question of whether it's a normal application or not and that there is no technical glitch.
This should be an eye opener. I don't think I'm ever going to trust this bank. There's absolutely nothing to trust. Their official website continues to mislead, the person holding a senior position and representing their bank casually lies over the call, they continue to avoid and try to shift the blame on to the prospective customer. You think this is how a bank should operate?
beingmohit
TF Premier
Hats off to you for putting in so much effort (for seemingly no personal benefit). Unfortunately, I get the feeling that RBI will close the complaint as soon as they receive the half-baked information from AU. The sad reality is accountability is not something RBI wants banks to focus on.
Yes agree with you - RBI is not even looking at their own Circular - Banks still reject applications citing internal policy and even if you complain to RBI, nothing happens. You get the same response that the card was rejected due to internal criterias.
SmartSave
TF Premier
Thank you and I have the same feeling. But at least I'll have my peace that I put up a fight and tried everything I can. Further, This thread will serve as an eye opener for everyone going forward as to how this bank operates and to be extra vigilant (Actually I'd totally avoid it because at this point, unless you have 1:1 dealing with their MD, nothing holds any value -- Website, No, Info over the calls, No, Terms and any docs, Nope).
Here's their latest email:
And here's my reply:
SmartSave
TF Premier
He came up with the so-called eligibility criteria even for the SwipeUp program...Like bro, seriously? Show me where the criteria is? I asked him what it was to which he went back to the same ....you provided consent line.
Edit: I'd like to add one more thing. Did you guys notice something? This bank is not customer centric nor wants to take a constructive feedback. They don't even want to acknowledge the issues despite repeated attempts and multiple reports. Whether it's a bank or a company, when a customer is giving them a feedback about so and so issues, if it's a customer centric organization, then they would appreciate it and take it positively and work on rectifying the issues but here instead of that, they continue to counter argue and try to brush things off by saying there are no issues, blame games, avoiding the primary issues, continuously and deliberately not talk about the issue at all and deviate to the thing that isn't even the core problem.
I've literally in public domain said it, one enquiry isn't the end of the world for me and I'm not even fighting for my report but in a general sense. I even sent them the links to all the publicly published content. But they're acting like that saying goes, "cat closing its eyes starts thinking the world can't see her" lol they're fooling themselves by avoiding, dragging, and turning this into an unnecessary issue. Had they taken things positively and showed willingness to rectify and accepted the mistake, we wouldn't have been in this situation. They can submit half baked info to RBI and try to shut the case but that is simply an affirmation that they're deliberately using deceptive tactics to lure customers and it's not like it's unknown or no one has pointed out about it, we can clearly see they're doing it with proper understanding of what they're doing.
I hope AU SFB people read this thread if not already and try to understand the core issue and work on fixing things for good and for their own success. Growth through transparency, trust, and honesty will go a long way than through deceptive tactics. Sure the numbers might elevate for short term but they'll eventually evaporate with time.
Edit: I'd like to add one more thing. Did you guys notice something? This bank is not customer centric nor wants to take a constructive feedback. They don't even want to acknowledge the issues despite repeated attempts and multiple reports. Whether it's a bank or a company, when a customer is giving them a feedback about so and so issues, if it's a customer centric organization, then they would appreciate it and take it positively and work on rectifying the issues but here instead of that, they continue to counter argue and try to brush things off by saying there are no issues, blame games, avoiding the primary issues, continuously and deliberately not talk about the issue at all and deviate to the thing that isn't even the core problem.
I've literally in public domain said it, one enquiry isn't the end of the world for me and I'm not even fighting for my report but in a general sense. I even sent them the links to all the publicly published content. But they're acting like that saying goes, "cat closing its eyes starts thinking the world can't see her" lol they're fooling themselves by avoiding, dragging, and turning this into an unnecessary issue. Had they taken things positively and showed willingness to rectify and accepted the mistake, we wouldn't have been in this situation. They can submit half baked info to RBI and try to shut the case but that is simply an affirmation that they're deliberately using deceptive tactics to lure customers and it's not like it's unknown or no one has pointed out about it, we can clearly see they're doing it with proper understanding of what they're doing.
I hope AU SFB people read this thread if not already and try to understand the core issue and work on fixing things for good and for their own success. Growth through transparency, trust, and honesty will go a long way than through deceptive tactics. Sure the numbers might elevate for short term but they'll eventually evaporate with time.
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RAMESH BABU N
TF Legend
My congratulations on doing a GREAT JOB. More or less, ALWAYS, Banks n RBI get away with whimsical n illogical n even stupid decision makings n processes - they all take shelter under the immunity they get under the BRA (Banking Regulation Act) and the fact that ONLY banking has what is known as descretion. True that while ALL subjects have definitive rules n regulations or principles - ONLY IN BANKING - THE THEORY N PRACTICE ARE DIFFERENT. And, it is fully legal to have this difference due to descretional decision making.
Being a Banker - Systems Specialist - for over 30 yrs - I myself was extremely unhappy over very many decisions n processes - in PNB n SBI - wherever I worked.
You did a GREAT JOB. Keep it going man.
SmartSave
TF Premier
Thank you 🙏
Also, that's insightful info. But it's disappointing to see over the decades nothing has changed and these banks continue to misuse such acts and get away. Needs some reforms in this space too.
True but even so they'll literally cherry pick certain elements that are in their favor while avoiding and overlooking their issues which is what's happening despite submitting plenty of proofs, they continue to not accept and I'm sure they're doing this because the moment they accept, they know they'll open a can of worms and get into more problems since all the past affected individuals would then be able to place a claim too.
I wish if this forum members would've at least made a little effort to retweet and call out this bank on Twitter/X (those who did, I totally appreciate it), that would've at least made the issue get highlighted in a level that would make them feel pressured to address it seriously or at least the level of awareness would've been at a bigger scale.
SmartSave
TF Premier
Here's a new discovery and a learning. I'll try to keep this short.
RBI guidelines suggest the banks adopt a Fair Practices Code for Credit Card Operations and every bank has voluntarily adopted it including AU Small Finance Bank. Here's the link which they hide it inside the subpages which aren't easily searchable: https://www.aubank.in/fair-practices-code.pdf
Now here's some interesting points (this a standard FPC that all banks use based on the RBI's draft):
Continue to second page:
Further, RBI's FPC mandates banks clearly and in simple language publish MITC in marketing materials, during application, before issuance, share with welcome kit, etc. and MITC itself talk about how the banks are supposed to clearly mention the eligibility criteria including income criteria, age restrictions, and other eligibility requirements.
But guess what? The senior escalations guy who called and even sent an email talks about how there's an eligibility criteria for their SwipeUp program but never disclosed what it is, their website including the FAQs or the so-called "Complete Terms and Conditions" also don't describe this crucial information.
While this is applicable in cases of an actual credit card application but if you guys are following this thread and read their reply, you would know the guy casually created an eligibility criteria for their SwipeUp program due to which it ended up as a normal credit card application, basically to avoid accepting there's a technical glitch, he came up with a reasoning just to try and brush things off.
And if you read the FPC itself, they themselves while adopting do not adhere to any of these. No transparency, no willingness to accept mistakes, no patience to listen or even make efforts to understand the problems and to correct them and implement changes. None of these are being practiced while publicly adopting for the namesake and probably for the legal purposes.
Perhaps people don't generally read any of these, so these people try to shut and get away talking any and everything randomly.
I've sent an email once again requesting for the audio files of our conversation and highlighted these FPC points and how they're in violation and that they still can accept the mistakes and rectify things for their own good. Also, reiterated all the things from their landing page and demanded answers to basic questions. Don't want to repeat it here and make this post too big. I'm sure that too will be ignored but once again, at least we're bringing some awareness and learning a thing or two out of dealing with this mess of a bank. Cheers!
RBI guidelines suggest the banks adopt a Fair Practices Code for Credit Card Operations and every bank has voluntarily adopted it including AU Small Finance Bank. Here's the link which they hide it inside the subpages which aren't easily searchable: https://www.aubank.in/fair-practices-code.pdf
Now here's some interesting points (this a standard FPC that all banks use based on the RBI's draft):
Continue to second page:
Further, RBI's FPC mandates banks clearly and in simple language publish MITC in marketing materials, during application, before issuance, share with welcome kit, etc. and MITC itself talk about how the banks are supposed to clearly mention the eligibility criteria including income criteria, age restrictions, and other eligibility requirements.
But guess what? The senior escalations guy who called and even sent an email talks about how there's an eligibility criteria for their SwipeUp program but never disclosed what it is, their website including the FAQs or the so-called "Complete Terms and Conditions" also don't describe this crucial information.
While this is applicable in cases of an actual credit card application but if you guys are following this thread and read their reply, you would know the guy casually created an eligibility criteria for their SwipeUp program due to which it ended up as a normal credit card application, basically to avoid accepting there's a technical glitch, he came up with a reasoning just to try and brush things off.
And if you read the FPC itself, they themselves while adopting do not adhere to any of these. No transparency, no willingness to accept mistakes, no patience to listen or even make efforts to understand the problems and to correct them and implement changes. None of these are being practiced while publicly adopting for the namesake and probably for the legal purposes.
Perhaps people don't generally read any of these, so these people try to shut and get away talking any and everything randomly.
I've sent an email once again requesting for the audio files of our conversation and highlighted these FPC points and how they're in violation and that they still can accept the mistakes and rectify things for their own good. Also, reiterated all the things from their landing page and demanded answers to basic questions. Don't want to repeat it here and make this post too big. I'm sure that too will be ignored but once again, at least we're bringing some awareness and learning a thing or two out of dealing with this mess of a bank. Cheers!
RAMESH BABU N
TF Legend
I am spreading this amongst my banking friends n banking contacts.
SmartSave
TF Premier
Thank you so much!!
SmartSave
TF Premier
Update: So my last email highlighting FPC points and reiteration of all the concerns/requests are once again being ignored as usual and a reply of the same previous email copy-pasted is sent again by the priority support. At this point, all the support level communication channels have been exhausted.
It's time to take this through other channels. RBI has ghosted for now (there's no progress there but it's okay, we'll continue to monitor and wait).
Will I give up? I don't think I would just yet. I'll keep trying and knocking all the doors until either this gets fixed or I run out of my options, LFG!!
It's time to take this through other channels. RBI has ghosted for now (there's no progress there but it's okay, we'll continue to monitor and wait).
Will I give up? I don't think I would just yet. I'll keep trying and knocking all the doors until either this gets fixed or I run out of my options, LFG!!
SmartSave
TF Premier
So the Twitter campaign got some boost thanks to a friend:
However, This doesn't resolve anything just yet. Does anyone know their senior management Twitter accounts? Perhaps you can tag please?
Another thing, I'm considering compiling everyones' comments who had faced this issue or similar to take this up collectively to their management.
If you wish to participate (And I would appreciate if you do it), please go ahead and reply with your comments about your concerns/issues relevant to SwipeUp and how your experience has been with it/your disappointments, etc. I'll be taking a screenshot as is and compile them in a PDF.
Don't worry, you don't need to share any of your personal details. It's to show the problem is not limited to one or two individuals but several in hopes that they consider it as a serious problem that needs to be addressed and not neglected.
However, This doesn't resolve anything just yet. Does anyone know their senior management Twitter accounts? Perhaps you can tag please?
Another thing, I'm considering compiling everyones' comments who had faced this issue or similar to take this up collectively to their management.
If you wish to participate (And I would appreciate if you do it), please go ahead and reply with your comments about your concerns/issues relevant to SwipeUp and how your experience has been with it/your disappointments, etc. I'll be taking a screenshot as is and compile them in a PDF.
Don't worry, you don't need to share any of your personal details. It's to show the problem is not limited to one or two individuals but several in hopes that they consider it as a serious problem that needs to be addressed and not neglected.
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RAMESH BABU N
TF Legend
As I said earlier, it is a big black hole. That chap doesn't even acknowledge. Leave alone trying to resolve. He doesn't even pretend to be doing so.