Olusola Elizabeth, a Lagos-based travel consultant, has narrated how Access Bank refused to refund the $132 deducted from her account after a failed web transaction.

The travel specialist told FIJ that she paid for a UK visa using her Access Bank card in March 2022 on behalf of one of her clients.

She said the transaction was not successful until the second attempt. For the failed one, the bank deducted $132, which prompted her to ask the bank for a refund.

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“I made use of my domiciliary account card to pay for a UK visa in March 2022. The transaction failed, but my money was still removed from my account. Upon complaint, I got a refund of the money on April 22,” Elizabeth told FIJ.

Elizabeth said he had done two successful transactions with the bank before the problematic one, but the bank reversed one of the successful ones to attend to her refund request.

“My joy that they had refunded my money was cut short when I discovered that they had charged back one of the successful payments to service my refund demand,” she said.

“I was expectant about the result of the hitch-free transactions. Eventually, I got a response for one payment. I observed the second one was taking longer than usual. So, I contacted the embassy, and they revealed to me that my bank charged back the payment.

“For that reason, they didn’t process the application. I was disappointed because the payments were not connected in any way. The two successful payments were deducted from my account, as well as the one I complained about.

“Why they had to reverse one of them to service my request is unclear to me.”

Elizabeth also told FIJ that she had to make another payment to the UK Embassy to save herself from embarrassment from her client.

“Since I realized that the problem came from my bank, I have been urging the bank to refund my money. Indeed, I have lost count of the number of times I have contacted them. They kept telling me they couldn’t trace the transaction again before it had been more than 3 months.”

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A customer service officer of Access Bank, who identified as Anifa, confirmed the status of the transaction to FIJ on Wednesday. She, however, said, “The transaction had been more than three months before Elizabeth complained and as a policy of the bank, the transaction cannot be traced again. We expect customers in that kind of situation to lodge a complaint almost immediately for us to easily look into it.”