Debited, Ignored and Tired: My Bitter Experience with Polaris Bank
By Abdulsalam Mahmud,
On the morning of December 1, 2025, at exactly 8:43am, I made what should have been a routine transaction. I transferred the value of ₦1,200 worth of MTN recharge card to my MTN line, 08067492272, using my Polaris Bank account. It was a simple action, one Nigerians perform countless times daily.
But what followed exposed a deeper problem within Nigeria’s banking culture. The money left my account instantly. Polaris Bank confirmed the debit without delay. Yet the recharge card never arrived. No credit alert. No airtime. Nothing.
Just a silent gap between what the bank took and what I never received. In that moment, the transaction stopped being about ₦1,200 and became about accountability. Like most customers, I assumed the issue would be resolved quickly. System delays happen. Errors occur.
What should not happen is abandonment. Days passed. Then weeks. Between December 1 and today, I have called Polaris Bank’s customer care line more than seven times, each call costing me airtime, patience, and dignity.
Each conversation followed the same empty script. I was told to “wait,” to “be patient.” But no reversal came. No explanation followed. No sense of urgency existed. The bank collected my money efficiently but treated my complaint casually.
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What makes this more painful is not the amount involved but the principle. If a customer can be debited without hesitation, then a reversal should not require endless begging. A banking system that processes debits in seconds but takes months to correct errors is not efficient. It is unjust.
As a journalist, I understand delays, workflows, and institutional bottlenecks. But I also understand responsibility. Polaris Bank has had sufficient time to investigate a transaction that is traceable, timestamped, and verifiable. There is no ambiguity here. The money left my account.
The service was not delivered. The burden should not rest on the customer. More troubling is the possibility that my case is not isolated. How many Nigerians have lost small amounts to failed transfers? How many people simply give up because the stress of following up costs more than the money lost? This is how silent exploitation thrives.
Customer care should not feel like punishment. Reaching out to a bank should not mean spending personal airtime repeatedly to report the same issue over and over again. When financial institutions normalize indifference, they erode trust faster than fraudsters ever could.
Polaris Bank must understand that silence is not neutrality. It is a statement. And right now, that statement tells customers they are on their own once something goes wrong. That is unacceptable for a bank that handles people’s livelihoods, savings, and daily survival.
This is not just a complaint. It is a public record of frustration. Polaris Bank owes me a reversal, yes, but more importantly, it owes its customers respect. Until banks learn that accountability is not optional, stories like this will continue to surface — one ignored transfer at a time.
Mahmud, Deputy Editor of PRNigeria, wrote in via: [email protected].
