Response: Interest or any charges/fees on the credit card shall not be factored in for the purpose of computing a cardholder’s credit limit usage and levying overlimit charges.

Response: Yes, the liability for dues shall rest solely with the principal cardholder and not with the add-on cardholders. However, settlement of dues towards international credit card shall also be governed as per FEMA regulations. Further, the responsibility for making payments in case of business credit cards shall be governed by the terms and conditions agreed upon.

Response: The Reserve Bank has not prescribed any requirement for insurance cover on debit or credit cards. However, in case a card-issuer or a card payment network provides an insurance cover, complimentary or chargeable (with the consent of the cardholder), the card-issuer shall ensure that the relevant nomination details are recorded by the Insurance Company and the availability of insurance is included, along with other information, in every statement. The information shall also include the details regarding the insurance cover, name/address and telephone number of the Insurance Company which will handle the claims relating to the insurance cover. In case of group insurance policy, the contact details of the concerned officials of the card-issuer shall be provided in the statements.

Response: Yes.

Response: A co-branding partner (CBP) acting as a BC or technology service provider for the card-issuer shall abide by the rules as prescribed in the instructions issued by RBI for such activities. However, a CBP shall not have access to card transaction data irrespective of any other service offered by them to the card-issuer. For the purpose of customer convenience, card transaction related data may be drawn directly from the card-issuer’s system in an encrypted form and displayed in the CBP’s platform with robust security. The information displayed through the CBP’s platform shall be visible only to the cardholder and shall neither be accessed nor be stored by the CBP. 

Response: No. De-activation/Blocking of a credit card temporarily curtails the ability of a cardholder to make any transaction in a credit card account while still maintaining the credit/account relationship with the card-issuer.

Closure of a credit card on the other hand amounts to termination of the account-based relationship between the cardholder and the card-issuer. The request for closure has to be honoured within seven working days as stipulated in Para 8 of the MD. However, in case payment towards dues is outstanding, the card-issuer shall provide details regarding such outstanding dues to the cardholder upon receipt of the closure request without waiting for completion of the billing cycle and accordingly advise him/her to make payment in order to complete the closure process. In such cases, the prescribed timeline of seven working days shall be calculated after excluding the number of days taken by the cardholder to clear the outstanding dues.  The card-issuer shall also report to CICs suitably about the closure of the card account.

Response: For redressal of his/her grievance, the customer must first approach the concerned card-issuer. If the card-issuer does not respond within a period of 30 days after filing of the complaint or rejects the complaint wholly/partly or if the customer is not satisfied with the response/resolution given by the card-issuer, the customer can lodge his/her complaint with the Ombudsman, Reserve Bank through any of the following methods:

i. Online at  https://cms.rbi.org.in.

ii. Physical complaint (letter/post) in the form as specified in Annexure ‘A’ of the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021 to “Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre, 4th Floor, Reserve Bank of India, Sector -17, Central Vista, Chandigarh - 160017”.