Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Has anyone else received a text and/or a statement saying 80TL is being deducted as an annual charge for using and Iktisatbank Smartcard?

I have been told by a representative of Iktisatbank that everyone has to pay for this but what I cannot find anywhere is a newsletter from Iktisatbank saying that this charge was due to come into effect.

Has anyone received this email newsletter with notification of this charge?

They introduced this last year but if you were a VIP customer they waived the charge. I'll probably get charged as we are no longer VIP customers - completely forgot about the charge.

I have just been in to pay off my credit card & queried this 80tl charge which was on my statement only to be told everyone has to pay this if you use a credit card.
I did mention that I was a vip customer but I was told makes no difference.

I, too, have queried this new charge and to be honest I was a little upset by it because I have not received anything from the bank informing me of this new charge.

I thought maybe I had deleted a past email so I asked for a copy of the newsletter telling me that this was going to happen and this is the response copied and pasted:

"As the Annual Card Fees were taken after this month’s Newsletter had been sent out, it will be featured in Januarys article"

I use my card about 4 times a year so for me it is not worth 80TL.

I left Iktisatbank a couple of years ago when they introduced standing charges on their current accounts and only told customers about it in their newsletter at least a month later than the start date. The charges weren't a lot but for me it was the principal and lack of communication, I guess they haven't changed their ways!

Sorry - I think I must have been thinking about the standing charge.

I left Iktisat Bank a year and a half ago and never looked back! Information updating for customers is non existent. Their Credit cards had a habit of showing "no funds available" when they were actually available - a very embarrassing situation when one makes a payment knowing well that there is credit in their account - now I always make sure I have enough cash on me to cover such situations!

(However, never had any such problem with the new bank I changed my account to...)

Being a corporate customer, we are working with a lot of banks, somewhere around 10.

Iktisatbank is the only company account that we closed down about 2 years ago and we also never looked back. My sister, who is a dentist, also closed all her accounts with Iktisat bank approx 6 months later. Their incompetency as a bank was beyond belief.

I see that nothing much has improved since.

My personal suggestion is to choose a bank that at least have a clue what banking is...

Doe.s anyone know how to get a list of Iktisat bank directors? It may make interesting reading.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... 1339,d.bGQ

Google is a marvellous thing !

I don't know why, but i think that their banking experience might be exagerated.........

Just received the December newsletter this morning from Iktisatbank and still there is no mention of being charged 80TL for the 'privelege' of using their smartcard!

Which bank do people recommend? I have lost track of the number of times we've been supposed to activate our "smart" cards, so am looking for an alternative, preferably close to the Alsancak area. Thanks for any help.

Well I am only a so called Swallow , but I have been with Credit West for a number of years with not a large balance and have always been treated courteously whenever I have visited the branch (Karaoglanoglu) plus I get 9.5%.

Thanks for the info!

Iktisatbank SmartCard annual fees have always been in existence, during 2014 this annual fee was not imposed upon our SmartCard holders as a gesture, following the changeover to the new state-of-the-art credit card system. In addition to the pre-existing benefits of the SmartCard, you can now earn points for every purchase made anywhere in the world irrespective of the amount, plus exclusive access to the CIP Bosphore Lounge at Ercan Airport.
In the future we will have available a brand new credit card with limited benefits that will have no annual card fee, we will let our clients know in due course when this card is available.

We are happy to discuss individual concerns and complaints directly with our clients at anytime, please email mcb@iktisatbank.com or contact our call centre on 444 4 444.
For up to date information of our products and services please visit our website iktisatbank.com.

IktisatMCB,

You may well have not charged us for this annual fee in the past as a 'gesture of goodwill' but do you not think it 'ethical' business practice to forewarn your clients that they are about to be charged this fee before imposing it on them?

That is my point when starting this thread.

Dear Squashmad,

Thank you for your reply, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss the issue regarding the credit card fees imposed. With regards to not informing clients of the annual credit card fee, as we have previously mentioned this was a pre-existing annual fee and clients had been charged a credit card fee in previous years, but were simply not charged this fee as a gesture during 2014.

I would be happy to meet with you at a convenient time to discuss any issues you have regarding your credit card or any other issues you may have with the products or services we provide.

IktisatMCB wrote:Iktisatbank SmartCard annual fees have always been in existence, during 2014 this annual fee was not imposed upon our SmartCard holders as a gesture, following the changeover to the new state-of-the-art credit card system. In addition to the pre-existing benefits of the SmartCard, you can now earn points for every purchase made anywhere in the world irrespective of the amount, plus exclusive access to the CIP Bosphore Lounge at Ercan Airport.
In the future we will have available a brand new credit card with limited benefits that will have no annual card fee, we will let our clients know in due course when this card is available.

We are happy to discuss individual concerns and complaints directly with our clients at anytime, please email mcb@iktisatbank.com or contact our call centre on 444 4 444.
For up to date information of our products and services please visit our website iktisatbank.com.

The problem with your bank is, you may have the necessary departments and numbers to discuss the issues with clients BUT what good is that when half the time the personnel have no clue about what to do, and the other half "the left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing".

Your bank started well because it was a Cypriot Bank but my personal thought (and observation) is, it soon started to malfunction because of the directors employment and staffing policies - where wrong people had been recruited and had been continuously promoted to wrong positions internally. It will take a while to sort this out but meanwhile I will stuck to another bank who have the experience and know how to deal with my financial interests.

squashmad wrote:IktisatMCB,

You may well have not charged us for this annual fee in the past as a 'gesture of goodwill' but do you not think it 'ethical' business practice to forewarn your clients that they are about to be charged this fee before imposing it on them?

That is my point when starting this thread.

The truth is they failed miserably where public relations are concerned!