The National - News

Dispute over credit card settlement deal

- HASSAN ELHAIS Lawyer,

QI had run up some debts on my credit card and had arranged a settlement with the bank providing the card. My debts amounted to Dh30,000, Dh5,000 of which was interest, but the bank agreed that I could settle the debt by paying Dh25,000. After paying, I went to their office to get my clearance letter. To my surprise, the staff told me that they cannot provide me with a clearance letter unless I paid the “discounted amount”, which is basically the interest they agreed to remove. This is not what we agreed. Will I have the right to get my clearance without paying this “discounted amount” that they are now claiming? What are my legal rights? A If the bank confirmed in writing or through email that your full settlement amount would be discounted and if you paid off that amount, then the bank’s email could be considered as their offer and you paying off the amount could be considered as acceptance. Therefore, you would have the right to file a commercial case against the bank to enforce this agreement and enforce them to provide you with the clearance letter. Article 243 of Federal Civil Law 5 of 1985 states the following: 1, unless the law provides otherwise, the contract’s provisions apply on the object of the contract and its considerat­ion immediatel­y upon its formation without making them dependent on payment or anything else.

2, as regards the contract’s rights (obligation­s), each of the contractin­g parties shall fulfil what the contract has bound him to do. Also, the bank does not have the right to amend what was agreed on without your consent or a court order, in accordance with Article 267 of Law 5 of 1985, which states that “if a contract is valid and binding, none of the contractin­g parties may revoke, modify or rescind it except by mutual consent, order of the court or a law provision”.

If you have a question for our lawyer, please email it to newsdesk@thenationa­l.ae with the subject line “Know the law”.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Arab Emirates