First Gulf Bank [FGB]
Reviews and Complaints

I have a first gulf bank platinum credit card which I agreed to take after a lot of convincing from the sales personnel.
He promised the card would allow access to buy one get one free movie tickets across all the cinemas in UAE, which is untrue information. This I learnt after I received the card.

I have been using the card for the past few months. I was told by the same sales personnel that the interest would be charged only on the remaining amount of the outstanding payment, if the minimum payment was done.
In december, i let some amount carry forward and was charged an interest of AED 212, on the whole amount and not only on the remaining amount.
If this wasn't enough, I placed a complain against the concerned sales personnel on 29th Dec 2013 and received no call back till today (12th Jan 2013). I had to follow up 9 times over a period of 15 days to just get someone to cater to my complain. The call I received today, was a sham. The sales personnel declined having told me any of the above information and my complain was closed(which I got to know via an SMS) without any resolution.

This experience really put me off, I asked the customer care representative to cancel my card as Noone really seems to care about my complain or the inconvenience they caused me.
I would like to bring to your notice, that all personnel who dealt with my case lacked empathy. Noone would want to deal with a bank that only wants to makes money, at the expense of their clientele and lacks transparency in their transactions.

My name is Mubarak. I received a call from FGB and they offered me a credit card. I said ok. Then they said that if you take Quick cash 90 % on your card you will get higher limit an free for life card. I said good. So i took a card whose limit was AED 30000 they gave me AED 27000 Quick cash. I asked the sales guy whether i can settle the amount early and if i settle how much i need to pay. He told me that you will need to pay AED 100 or 1% of the principal amount which ever is higher. I said Ok. 2 days before i contacted FGB for pre closure of the quick cash. They refused and said that i need to pay total PRINCIPAL+INTEREST if i need to close. I said does i makes sense they said it is companies policy.There is no use settling the account by paying AED 324*19=AED 6156 without any reason.HELP PLEASE!

Insurance charges

I have a credit cards from First Gulf Bank (FGB) that I had got six months ago. I always pay regularly on time, at least the minimum balance.
They have started a new way of charging the customer with different types of insurance facilities. They do not ask the customers for any confirmation whether they need the same or not. They just start charging them and it becomes the duty of the customer to cancel that facility when it comes to their notice; until then the bank will happily charge as per their wish. They have been charging me for the last six months and blame it on me for not checking my statements regularly!
Finally, when I managed to review my statements and had a complaint registered I get a call after 5 days although the fact that I get a call from their representatives atleast twice a week since I had bought the card. They say that, in case we do not need it, they will cancel the same from next month.
I was charged for six months a sum of Dh. 1, 800 approx, which I have never asked for and had never confirmed either through phone or in writing.
When I asked for the refund of the amount which they have charged without my consent, they blindly refused to do so. In short, they are trying to cheat their customer by saying it is mentioned in your terms and conditions. Although, this point is nowhere mentioned clearly in the termsand conditions that I had signed on. I urge gulf news to kindly address my problem to the higher authorities at the bank and I advise the present and new customers of FGB to be aware of this fraudulent scheme.

I would like to complain against first gulf bank.
I was having credit card with credit limit of 9000. I have stopped using this card in the year 2010 & till August 2012 i was payning 550 every month, but than also my caption amount remains same & now it is showing outsanding of 14000. i don't know what to do because what ever i have earned from Dubai everything First Gulf has taken from me.
Every day i am receiving call from there collection centre & even i am receiving SMS that they will put travel ban on me.
My question is if i will calculate the amount which i piad to the bank then i didn't swipped my card that much? In every month statement they are charging 175 late payment & over limit 175 this way it work more than year.
Now i am totally frustrated with this, i don't know what to do? Please help me to get out from this worst situation or i will end my life.
email me: anup.[protected]@gmail.com [protected])

Dear Sir,
I was been contacted by one of First Gulf Bank sales agent Named Mr. Binish (Contact Number - +[protected]) and upon introduction I was been Informed that the Credit Card is Free for Life Time for Dubai World employees. I verified this with Mr. Binish several times before proceeding with my acceptance of applying for the credit card and every time I got the same reply that the credit card is free for life time. Finally upon receiving the credit card when I called the call centre to activate the card and cancel the insurance and credit shield, I just casually checked with the staff and was shocked to know that the card was free only for the first year and thereupon there will be annual charge applicable. I thereupon called Mr. Bineesh and again by him I was given the same response that the card is free for life time and that it was a special offer for Dubai World Employees. He said that the card will become free for lifetime after 45 days from the date of activation. I waited till 45 days and called back again and again I was surprised that the card was still not changed to free for life time. Once again I called Mr. Binish and again this man is telling me to call after 2 days, call after 5 minutes. Finally I was been told that he would be sending me a form by Email which I need to sign and fax back to him, that will enable the card to be free for life time. It's been 5 days since I am yet to receive the email. However with the wrong information given and poor service I would definitely want to cancel this card and would seek and answer from FGB that is this the way you do the marketing of your products by fooling the customers with wrong information. Does the business of FGB rely on false and lies. If so I will never recommend anyone to First Gulf Bank and their Products.

I would like to complaint the representative of fgb bank collection department - that he harass me during office hours. To you sir and your colleague - I assure you that you and your family life become misserable triple of what you have done to me. I pay my credit card every month but still you fgb collection dept wants to get the commission for just a small amount of money! Pls note that we are all temporary here in this world. You people will be in the group of satan.

My name is Anup, I am having First Gulf Bank Credit Card my outstanding is almost 12000, every time iam receiving call from collection department to pay 1000dhs, but i am paying everymonth 500dhs, but than also my outstanding amount is not reducing next month again i get charged for late payment fee, over limint fee etc.
Please help me i want to go for installment plan even though i had requested several times but they are cancelling my request. please help me because from more than year i had paid 500dhs every months & if i will calculate i had paid to the bank more than i used my credit card. please help me to settle this otherwise i have to do sucide. please reply to mail id: anup.[protected]@gmail.com

In 2001 I deposited US $ 282, 000 with Citi Bank Through [name removed]i working with Citi Bank & Now [name removed]i working with First Gulf Bank. [name removed]ji Forged my signatures 11 time to cheat me & My wife. We Migrated To Australia from Dubai & when reached here we found that we have been cheated by [name removed]ji. He tried to offer us some amounts to keep our moth shut. We have complained so far in Australia, Singapore, India & Dubai but we have not received yet any satisfactory answers from any where & neither our money & Any actions against [name removed]ji.
Kindly look into this matter & if required I am more than happy to come & show all the documentation that he forged certified by and Hand writting expert from Australia.
Regards.
Rajkumar Hemdev

Hi,
I have a First Gulf Bank credit card. Last October 10th I recieved a call from bank employee for quick cash loan.
But the lady(employee of the bank) did not inform me all the details about the loan and she had taken my bank details.
Again on 12th October when she called me I asked her about all the interest charges. After getting those information from her I asked her
for sometime so that I can take some time to think over it. I asked her to call me again next day.The same day I had decided not to take
the loan as I dont need as of now and I dont want to pay interest rate simply to the bank.
The next day when I was expecting the call from the bank, there was no call made. One day after I went to India as I had booked the tickets.
After 3 days I came back from India and I was not that FGB bank has credited the loan amount to my account.
Since I already had more money than the total loan amount in my standard chattered account before, I spent a part of
the loan money with my own saving amount. I was not aware there is an extra amount of money in my account which was credited by FGB bank.
After a period when I looked into my standard chattered bank statement I found 24000 dirham was credited to my account FGB bank and
I have spent 4000 dirham out of that. So I called up customer care to clarify why they have credited quick cash loan to my account without
notifying me and even after crediting the money they did not inform me. i dont want any debt on my head and I dont want to pay simply interest charges to the bank when I dont need any loan.
I asked them to take back the loan amount what they have credited. After one/two day one person called me from the bank, I informed him everything. He was so rude to me
and he said loan can not be cancelled. I asked him two questions how the bank can credit to my account without my permission and why they
did not inform me after crediting to my account. He did not answer to my questions and he was so rude to close the case saying I have to
go for the loan period and pay interest as I ahve used a part of the loan. Then the case was closed from bank side. After that I been
calling to the bank so many times and I asked them to go through the recorded voice since I have clearly asked for a confirmation call
before doing any transaction.They had done mistake from their side now they are asking me forcefully to go for the loan which I dont need,
so that they can take interest charges. This is really a partial decission from the bank side without judging customer's situations.
Kindly advise me.

I was issued Credit Card by FGB. DEspite not opting for Accident Insurance and Credit Shield in their form, they forced in first statement. The statement was never sent to me. In the next statement they put late payment charge and another billing for Accident Insurance and Credit Shield. When I call up and disputed ont eh charges put up without my concurrence, they put the onus on me, with an excuse that if I do not receive statament of account, I should have called up customer service and compalined about it. Is this the way bank wnts to make money - which I will call it an illigitimate way of earning! Is there anyway wrongful practices of these banks can be taken up with any regulatory authority?

Hello All,
Having delayed payments myself because of my current financial crisis, I have been receiving threatening calls from the FGB collection department. These threatening calls include that they will send the police/cid in my workplace. Go to our HR and make a big problem for me and assures me that I'd lose my job etc...etc.. You know the standard hardball tactics they use to strike fear to you. I have missed three installments ..but been trying to catch up with my payments.
But my question here is did anybody actually got jailed for having missed three installments?

I keep contacting FGB's customer service through email about my credit card bill but it seems they keep running around the bush. I had my credit card with this company when I worked in Abu Dhabi. I went back here in the Philippines because of a family emergency but when I got back to Abu Dhabi I tried paying my bill through their atm (which they said I can do) but it didn't work. When I finally went home here for good last April 2010, I kept my constant communication with their customer service through email and specifically asked them many times to give me ways on how to take care of my credit card bill to avoid surcharges. They just give me one option: pay it though bank or western Union quick collect using their swift code. Unfortunately banks and western union do not cater such service, they are not familiar with that. I emailed FGB again and again and they kept on repeating about the swift code thing. I got so irritated because i told them many times we don't have it here. So when they sent my bill it already reflected the interest/surcharges. I was startled because it wasn't my fault why I didn't pay my bill on time. It was theirs. They really don't care about their customers concerns. All they want is to charge you more and more until you cannot afford to pay your bills! It's so frustrating! I asked them again to remove the surcharges because again it wasn't my fault . They stopped responding to my emails and kept on sending me bills and I don't know what to do. I would like to go back working in Middle East but my problem is about that dispute with FGB. I don't want troubles when I get there again for work. I asked my friend in UAE to try settling my bills with FGB but they said they won't entertain a non-account holder. This company is very impossible! They don't entertaining non account holder but they stopped addressing my concerns with the bulk of emails I sent them. I hope someone can help me get an answer to this concern... It really makes me sick and mad now specially seeing the bills they are sending every month that contains all the surcharges!

I really feel sorry for having first gulf bank as my credit card. It was really a big mistake of my life, because the way the colletors treat their customers is very unhuman.

I just missed two payments because of my vacation and unexpected pregnancy. Since then, the collectors always going to my workplace and making scandals. Every week they are sending fax to our hr. I beg them to wait since I came from big expenses but they didn’t listen. They are very unhuman… they even calling me even from morning till evening, even my families in our country.

Mr. Ankit, one # guy from collection department call me an # and threatened me that he will make my life miserable if I didn’t pay. He call also my family and told them that I was in big trouble here in uae and asked them to send money for me.

Is it allowed for them to do that? Please I need legal advise. I really want to sue and curse fgb.

First gulf bank is really the worst next to rbs bank. Last year, I remember them calling me and telling me they don't care if I commit suicide as long as I pay the debt I owe them. Then sometime in may 2010, collections called me and was asking me where I am getting the money to pay the loan.. And I told this person that it's none of his business where i'm getting the money to pay the bank...in june 2010 same person called me about my loan payment, and I was explaining to him it's going to be a bit delayed and he told me to shut up, I told him right back that he should shut up too because he had no right to tell me to shut up.

September 26, 2010 - sumesh of first gulf bank with mobile number: [protected] called me again for my loan payment. I asked him to wait for 3 more days as my due date is on the 29th of the month. He told me that I don't pay the loan, he can make more trouble for me. I told him, fine, do it as if I don't have a police case against me. Then he said he will not do that.

September 27, 2010 - bala of fgb collections called my husband and was asking him to come to their office in deira so my husband can enter and sign a settlement agreement with the bank with regards to his outstanding balance of 4000 dhs. I told my husband he should not come, and we will pay the full outstanding balance.

September 28, 2010 - same person called my husband and was asking why he didn't come. My husband told him that he already settled the debt and paid it in full that night. This person got irritated for some reason, and this is what he said to my husband:

Bala: why did you do that? Why did you pay? I'm not asking you to pay. I'm asking you to come here. You have six months pending, there is legal case against you blah blah blah...

Husband: what six months pending? I already pain in full last night. Can you give me your fax number so I can fax my receipt?

Really... What a #! You don't pay... They harass you. You pay all your outstanding balances... They get angry with you. Collections people are this really so hard up in getting their commissions?

October 03, 2010 - another collections agent from fgb called me today and is asking me to restructure my loan, they will include my two credit cards master card and makkah card with the loan so it will be only a single account. I told him straight out that i'm not interested as I was fooled last year by this restructuring program wherein I payed an additional 16k dhs which I am not using. I learned my lesson from last year that's why I told him leave it as it is, given the time I can close the months pending on the account. Then he started shouting at me and is talking to me in a very rude tone of voice and he even bragged about being the manager of this sumesh person...

Is it right for collections agency to force you into some settlement in which you do not want? Can I sue them in court for this? By the way, I had the call recorded when the bank called me...

To whom ever is reading or searching this topic:

over 30 people were scamed by First Gulf Bank on their rent-to-own contract at the Discovery Gardens Dubai. Everyone was sold on the matter were told that the only requirement to vacate the apartment prior to the lease period would be provide the bank with a one month notice. No obligations, no hidden charges and attachments.

THIS IS ALL A SCAM, if you are reading this, we have put together a committee by the people to go before the bank, lawyers and RERA to fight this as it is our right to be told the truth and the whole truth about the contracts were we are not professionals at and are about to sign.

Please, forward this to all the people you know that are involved in this matter and make sure they are aware that First Gulf Bank will charge them interest and profit and btw this is Islamic Financing, and they have wronged every law that goes around that.

Thank you

To make a long story short, I one day found out that my credit card account had gone down to just about -8000 (That's negative eight thousand). My credit limit had apparently been reduced.

The reason? I wouldn't know — because I was never informed.

To make matters worse, the bank had been asking me to pay the minimum amount due, calculated against the total outstanding balance which had accrued finance charges.

It's like all of a sudden the bank decides to cut off my purchasing ability and make me pay the outstanding amount off.

If that was the way I would've wanted it to be, I should have gotten a personal loan instead!

Have you ever heard of a credit card which you cannot use for credit? The card now is completely useless.

I understand there's a recession and all, (And this bank is probably going bankrupt.. Oh haha, funny!) but this is just insane.

I'm sure somewhere within the annals of this country's law books, this can be characterized as illegal.