For recurring payment to cease, customer must instruct merchant to cancel billing arrangement: Citibank

We refer to Mr Vince Chan Kok Keong's letter, 'Bank can't stop direct debit arrangement' (Online forum, Feb 28).

We have since contacted Mr Chan to address his concerns and thank him for his feedback.

We would also like to take this opportunity to clarify certain points highlighted by Mr Chan for the benefit of customers who may encounter a similar situation.

In his letter, Mr Chan stated that he called up Citibank to terminate a direct debit arrangement he had made with a merchant and was informed that 'although Citibank has the right to approve or reject a direct debit application before any charging could be activated by a merchant, there is nothing it can do to stop the automatic charging after that'.

In line with industry practice, customers can authorise a merchant to charge a recurring payment such as utilities bills or charity donations to their credit card account.

The bank, on receiving the charge from the merchant, will facilitate the deduction after verifying that the customer's account details are in order.

Similarly, for a recurring payment to cease, the customer must instruct the same merchant to cancel the billing arrangement.

Customers who suspect that they have been charged for transactions that they did not authorise should contact the bank immediately, so that an investigation can be conducted.

To protect our customers against fraudulent transactions, we will also arrange to block their card account and issue them with a new credit card.

Customers who require assistance can contact our 24-Hour CitiPhone Banking hotline at (65) 6225-5225.

Adam Rahman

Corporate Affairs Director

Citibank Singapore Ltd