The complainant, Harinder Singh, alleged that he had received highly-inflated bills on his ICICI credit card. It was averred that a settlement was agreed upon wherein he was directed to make the payment through three monthly installments.

He alleged that he had paid the installments and after a year, he received a “threatening” call from an employee of the company. He claimed that he had to pay Rs 10,000 more even though no amount was due.

In its reply, the ICICI bank stated that an amount of Rs 23,750 was due from the complainant and as per the settlement he had to pay three installments.

The complainant failed to pay the last installment of Rs 6,500 in July 2006, and the overdue charges continued to become payable, argued the bank while rubbishing the allegations of making “threatening” calls through the police.

They added that while the outstanding amount was Rs 19,781, it was agreed that the matter be settled with Rs 10,000.

The forum held that the last installment was not paid by the due date and, hence, the entire settlement of paying through installments became void as per the initial agreement.