Respected Members,
I am Rajat from Bangalore and I have a 2 ICICI Credit Card debts which are unpaid since 2009.
I have checked my CIBIL report and the accounts show March 2009.
1st Debt : Rs 1 lakh (Credit Card)
2nd Debt : Rs 4 Lakhs (ICICI unsecured loan on phone without any signed documents or collateral)
I had received 2 demand noticed for each of these debts from ICICI Lawyers via email to my yahoo id in the year 2011. I have not responded to these emails.
Back in 2009 due to a unexpected health condition of my father I was put in a situation where I had no other choice but to come up with money for his operation. I had to use all the sources of funds which were available to me at that time which resulted in my poor financial situation as I was the only earning member in my family. I have never been able to recover financial from that situation till date.
I also had to use the credit cards from Citibank for similar amounts and was unable to pay them back as well but I spoke with Citibank and they offered me a solution where they would convert the unsecured Credit card debt into a loan of a fixed amount with a tenure of certain years and I accepted that as that was something I could do and also went ahead and made all the payments and repaid Rs 6 Lakhs in the last 5 years without missing on a single payment. This was only because they were able to offer me such a plan based on my current financial situation.
In the same way I approached ICICI bank in 2009 but they told me that they don’t offer such options to any credit card holders and told me that I had to make the payment in full as they closed my credit card accounts after 2 months of defaults. Since then they had marked me as a defaulter on CIBIL and I have been facing a lot of harassment from the collections agencies. In 2010 they even sent collection agent who visit my residence while I wasn’t there and threatened my mother. I didn’t take any action as I wasn’t aware there was something that I could do and considered all this as a curse that I had to live with from now on.
Past 3 years I have shifted my residence and haven’t faced any collection agent’s visits but yesterday I received a call on my office line and a new collection agent started demanding the payment in full as I am a defaulter. I told him that I don’t appreciate him calling on my office line as that would lead to mental torture and also could lead to a situation where my employer might fire me. When I told him not to call on the office line he stated that then I need to give him my cell phone number or he will continue calling my office number and also visit my office and create a scene to embarrass me in front of my employers.
I don’t want to give him my cell phone number as I have lived through this hell for a long time and cannot continue to do it or allow it to affect my ailing mother. Just the mention of ICICI affects her more than me and I cannot bear to watch that happen all over again.
I have gone through all of this. My credit has been ruined by ICICI by reporting me as a defaulter. I haven’t even tried to take out any new loans as I am sure I wouldn’t be eligible for any. That is something I have accepted as a part of my life but I did read that these Collection activities have an expire period (Time Bar/ Statue of Limitations) after which the financial institution cannot continue to collect on a debt (Specially unsecured loans/cards). I am not even interested in a settlement with the bank as I have been through hell and the damage has already been done and going through a settlement now is no way going to help me in anyway but just provide a means for the collection agents to get a good commission.
I have tried to talk with the police SI who is near to my house but he just sort of taunted me saying if you take a loan then you have to pay it back and I cannot help you by stopping the bank from visiting your residence. He even happily spoke with the collection agent as they seemed to know someone in common and this sort of put me in a fix without knowing if there is a way I could be protected.
I have reviewed several treads in this forum trying to understand if anyone else faced this situation but wasn’t able to get a clear indication as to how I should proceed. If there is a way for me to be free from this harassment then could you please help me?
I would really thank you all if you could please help me by providing me with some guidance and also appreciate if you could inform me of any lawyers in Bangalore who could take this up for me as I don’t think I have the energy or the strength in me to re-live this situation.
Thank you
Rajat
