Professor Arun K Lall of the Punjab Engineering College said he enrolled for the personal accident plan of the company in 2007 with the assurance that he can discontinue later after reviewing the documents and without any financial implication.

Under the scheme, Rs 10 per month was to be deducted for first two months and Rs 329 per month was to be charged later as premium from HSBC credit card account after confirmation for continuation.

Lall, in March 2008, confirmed through email that he was not interested in the policy. Later, the company contacted the complainant again for review of another health plan and after repeated assurance from the top officials, he permitted HSBC to go ahead with crediting the premium. On March 3, however, the complainant confirmed that he was not interested in the policy and, therefore, requested that the premium should not be debited.

Lall said the premium was still being debited to his credit card. He said a policy of Rs 13,107 was also discontinued against the request but a cheque of Rs 9,830 was received by him.

He said the third policy premium of Rs 34,356 was also discontinued by him for which cancellation request was made and Rs 34,257 were credited to HSBC after deducting Rs 99. He thus moved the consumer forum.

In its reply, the company admitted that the complainant took three policies which were later cancelled and the premium amount was refunded as per terms and conditions of the policy.