UBL Wallet is the Debit Card being offered by UBL in Pakistan. A few weeks ago, UBL allowed its Debit Card to be used for online transactions just like a credit card. This has been a norm in most of the countries abroad but this is the first instance in Pakistan. Other Banks in Pakistan might soon follow UBL in this one. It’s a win win situation for us, the customers but unfortunately after using UBL Wallet on Internet, I lost all the excitement I had about using it online. Here is my experience with UBL Wallet. I think all these issues will be pretty much there with UBL Wiz - their so called prepaid debit card.

(1) UBL does not have a dedicated helpline for Credit Cards/Debit Cards and I don’t know why but their systems are slow. I was put on long holds during session activation procedures, inquiries and complaints.

(2) You do not get the option of setting the maximum limit for the session transaction in foreign currency. You have to do the conversion your self and tell them an approximate limit. This might be a limitation due to the fact that Debit Card is connected to the Bank Account but my transactions failed twice due to this since they include the session fee in the maximum limit you set and the fee too is double than what they advertise! (Read ahead)

(3) You do not get a detailed statement of Debit Card usage like that of a Credit Card. The merchant name is mentioned but the foreign currency amount is not mentioned, conversion rate is not mentioned and the worst part, their session activation fee is not shown separately. A single deduction will be shown, the amount including the amount of transactions plus their session fee.

(4) You can never know the conversion rate which they charged you with from UBL! Their helpline says that the Dollar rate of that day of UBL will be the conversion rate for that day’s transaction. You can know the rate yourself but that again is a problem…

(5) I was charged Rs.1300 for a transaction of US$ 15. When I inquired their helpline about the conversion rate. The lady said 1300/15=86.6 Rupees per Dollar! I laughed and said are you serious, that would have been Pakistan’s record high, that day’s rate was 73 Rupees some paisas. The reply from her was, you should have seen the Dollar rate of UBL that day. Why are you complaining now after the transaction took place, you should have seen the rate before!

(6) I was told to contact Problem Resolution which I did. I received a call that it will be resolved in a week’s time. A week passed and the problem was still pending. It was not until I sent complaint letters to UBL’s Chairman & CEO that they finally solved the problem. All this took 2 full weeks. I received a call from UBL Head Office, the guy informed me that double fee was deducted by mistake from my account and that they have credited the amount back to me. He was blaming late “post” from merchants for the problem but I told him that another friend has the same problem. He said he should also complain! I asked him if this will happen again and he replied that it won’t happen but if it does then I should contact them back and it will be credited.

(7) Few days later, I did another transaction and guess what… The same happened again. This seems to be a bug with their system or perhaps it is a hidden charge which they are not telling anyone about? I have not bothered complaining about the double charge again since they credited 200 Rupees for the last complaint in mistake instead of 100 Rupees =). The guy had told me the extra 100 will be deducted in few days, that never happened so we are even for now.

I was very excited and happy to know that I will be able to use UBL Wallet online from now on but it swept away. I will still use the card but will always have to complain to them for charging me double fee?! and God knows for how long…

If you have used UBL Wallet online. Please see the amounts they deducted for the transactions. Deduct 100 Rupees fee from the amount they cut and divide it by the transaction amount in Dollar or whichever currency it was in which you shopped online. If the result appears to be same as that day’s Dollar rate or a rupee more, then its all right. If it’s a lot more then guess what. You got robbed by UBL… Try deducting 200 Rupees from the total they cut for that transaction and calculate the conversion rate then, you will be surprised!

Please share your experience of UBL Wallet’s online usage here for everyone to see and spread the word around. Only then will UBL do something about this problem.