The local banks have begun to tighten restrictions on expatriate clients whose residence permits have expired, accessing their bank accounts immediately, even if the required movement is a withdrawal from the monthly salary or a deposit.
The sources indicated that the banks that activated this procedure apply not only to non-Kuwaiti customers whose IDs have expired for a long time, but even to the newly expired segment of their cards, as the restriction begins from the first day, noting that this procedure is applied to also to bedoun customers, reports Al-Rai daily quoting reliable banking sources, reports Al-Rai daily.
The sources explained that the point of view of these banks is that they opened the bank account for its customers based on the fact that he/she holds a legal residence permit, and in the event that the civil ID expires, the holder automatically becomes an illegal resident, which legally requires the banks not to deal with him like any government agency that does that and considers it a violation of the residence law.
The sources indicated that the expiration of the civil ID entails restricting all regular money withdrawal movements for such customers, whether from the deposited amounts or from the salary, or even from the end-of-service indemnity, if any, and other funds.
This is In addition, the other requests are frozen, even if the customer had got the approval before the expiry of his/her civil ID — an initial approval from the bank to finance him, since he/she had fulfilled the conditions for loan.
The financing restriction in this regard includes direct loans, as well as credit card financing that allows the customer to obtain monthly financing, such as withdrawals from Visa and MasterCard cards.
The sources pointed out that clients were finally surprised by the suspension of the effectiveness of their ATM cards, and upon checking with the concerned bank branch, the official informed them that this procedure was due to the expiration of their civil cards, and that this would be applied until the renewal of their residency data, indicating that they are prevented from freely disposing of their money even through the bank branch unless their civil cards are renewed.
It is known that there is a link between banks and the Public Authority for Civil Information, and usually the customer is notified in the event of the expiration of his civil card of the need to update his data by sending the bank text messages to his registered phone number, and he/she is also notified through automatic withdrawal machines, knowing that banks you communicate with the covered customers through 3 consecutive text messages at least one month before the expiration date of the civil card.
The sources indicated that the procedure for restricting the bank account in the event of the expiration of the civil card is not applied to the same degree by all banks, as dealing with these customers differs from one bank to another, explaining that there are banks that are not strict with them to the maximum extent by applying preventing their access to bank balances, and be satisfied with requesting for any other valid identification papers for that period, especially if the civil card expiration date is recent, as it is estimated in this regard that there are procedural reasons that may be behind the delay in residence renewal, and among the copies of papers that are accepted by the bank as a passport or driver’s license.
The sources said that there are other banks that reduce the maximum withdrawal limit for the customer whose civil card has expired, and if they allow in normal times to withdraw up to 2000 dinars per day, they reduce the rate to 500 dinars, for example, in an attempt to motivate the customer to speed up correcting his legal status and renewing his/her residence permit.
The sources added that in order to avoid completely restricting the movement of withdrawing funds in the event that the customer is unable to renew his/her civil card, there is a procedural way out that may guarantee the permission to withdraw the frozen balances temporarily, which is to apply to the concerned bank with a request to close the bank account, in which case the bank accepts the disbursement of the balances, provided that it includes presenting valid identification papers confirming that the customer is the same person who has the legal capacity to complete this procedure.
The sources pointed out that clients usually do not prefer to resort to this procedure, especially those who face a temporary problem in renewing their residence data, and the reason for this is that if the account is closed, the client may face many challenges in opening a new account, especially if he is one of those with low salaries, who many banks do not accept dealing with.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
