I use two credit cards - one which I sought out - with Citibank and the other - which I never sought - with ABN-AMRO Bank. I have never wanted to use credit cards for anything except as a cashless facility to expedite transactions. To date I have never had a problem with the Citibank cards. The ABN-AMRO Card was crookery all the way through.

1. I was promised a two nights/ three day vacation for becoming a member. I paid up the money but the vacation coupon never arrived. When it finally did, there were only ten days left for expiry and no booking was available in the venues near Delhi. I complained and threatened to close my account when the coupon finally arrived - three months late. I tried to book from the day the coupon arrived but no weekend was available at any vacation point for the entire three months. This means this particular option was never really available on the coupon. I was forced to go midweek as well as off-season to use a facility I'd been promised long ago.

2. Every now and then new charges like new schemes were started as a result of which additional charges of Rs 50-75 per month became due as a default. This means everyone will be charged that amount but only those who write in to cancel the same will not. Most of the time we do not write in so they keep charging extra payments on our accounts.

3. I was out of station once ... the email bill was being sent to the wrong email in spite of my trying to correct this ... and I paid an amount which was not the complete amount. Suddenly the bills piled up. Before I knew what was happening I owed them something in excess of Rs. 8000 for a supposed Rs. 350 default. I asked them for all bills for that year so I could see where they had charged me the excess charges mentioned in (2) above. They promised but didn't send anything. Next month the late charges and non-payment charges got worse.

4. Every time I threatened to take them to the Banking Ombudsman they seemed conciliatory but in a day someone else would write threatening emails etc.

5. Finally, in March this year someone called from an organisation called Matrix collection and said they'd been authorised to settle by ABN-AMRO but it had to be done that day. I agreed. I paid them the 300 odd I owed and got a receipt for full and final payment from them.

6. There was silence for a month and suddenly the demands started again - this time claiming Rs. 5000 odd. They said Matrix was their agency but was not authorised to offer full and final settlement!

This is only the gist of their crookery. I am now planning to file a complaint with the consumer court. These people need to be taught a lesson.

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