Bengaluru: Husband’s or relatives withdrawing your money using debit card could now prove you costly since the court ruled that Husband’s can not use wife’s ATM card.
A Bengaluru woman was shocked to learn that no amount from SBI’s ATM card was released when her husband used it to withdraw Rs 25,000 from a local SBI ATM but instead the machine delivered a slip of money being debited, TOI reported.
According to the Banking rules, an ATM card is non-transferable and no other person apart from the account holder should use it.
On November 14, 2013, Vandana a Marathahalli resident asked her husband Rajesh to get an amount of Rs 25000 from a local SBI ATM giving him her pin number.
When Rajesh swiped the card the machine only released a slip showing the amount was debited but no released no amount.
When the duo approached the Bank for money claim, SBI rejected their claims citing the Banks’s ‘non-transferable’ rule where none other than the account holder is authorized to use the ATM.
After the Bank turned them down, Vandana approached the Bangalore IVth Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on October 21, 2014, alleging that SBI had failed to refund the Rs 25,000 she’d lost in the ATM transaction.
Vandana said since she had just given birth and could not move out of home, she had to ask her husband to withdraw the money on her behalf.
When Rajesh encountered the issue he immediately called the SBI call centre who informed him it was the ATM’s fault and that the money would be reverted back into the account within the next 24 hours.
Since the money was not reverted back into the account the next day, Rajesh approached the bank’s Helicopter Division branch at HAL with a formal complaint, but instead of getting their money back the SBI allegedly shut the case in a few days, stating the transaction indeed took place and the customer got the money.
With no way to prove their claims the couple somehow managed to acquire CCTV footage which showed Rajesh using the machine but no cash was released.
The couple then lodged another complaint with the Bank, to their shock the investigation committee ruled that the ATM user was not the account holder.
Vandana then obtained a cash verification report of the ATM for November 16, 2013 through RTI which showed the machine had an excess cash of Rs 25,000 in it.
She submitted the report to the court which was countered by the SBI counsel who also produced a report showing no excess cash in the machine
The couple then once again approached the bank with their plea but the bank simply said ‘PIN shared, case closed.’
Vandana later approached the consumer forum where the case went on for over three-and-a-half years.
Though Vandana claimed the Bank to refund her money, the SBI maintained its ground and instead submitted reports showing the transaction was successful and technically correct.
Finally the court on May 29, 2018, ruled that Vandana should have given an authorization letter to her husband for withdrawal of the money or a self-cheque instead of sharing her pin and dismissed the case.