Get Rs. 500 If There is a Delay in Credit Card Closure According to New Rules

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced news rules on credit card and debit card issuance and operations on Thursday called “Reserve Bank of India (Credit Card and Debit Card – Issuance and Conduct) Directions, 2022”. The new directions will be effective from 1st July 2022 and provisions of these directions related to credit cards will apply to all scheduled banks (excluding payments banks, district central co-operative banks, and state co-operative banks) and all non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) that are operating in India. As per the directions, the credit card issuer will pay a fine to the credit cardholder if there is any delay in closing the credit card account.

The new RBI rules on credit card closure are as follows:
Credit card should be closed within 7 days
According to RBI directions, any request for closing a credit card must be honoured within a period of 7 working days by the credit card issuing company if the cardholder has paid off all dues. The credit cardholder should be immediately notified about the closure of credit card via email, SMS, or other modes.

Multiple channels should be provided for closure request
The credit card issuer must provide multiple channels for submitting request for the closure of credit card account including helpline, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), dedicated e-mail id, prominently visible link on the website, mobile-app, internet banking, or any other mode.

No need to send credit card closure request via post
The card issuer should not insist on sending a credit card closure request via post or any other ways which may result in the delay of receiving the request.

Cardholder will get Rs. 500 for delaying the closure process
In case the credit card issuer fails to process the closure of credit card within 7 working days, it should pay Rs. 500 per day to the customer as a penalty for delay till the closure of the account, if there is no outstanding in the account.

Card not used for 1 year will be closed
If a credit card has not been in use for a period of more than a year, the card issuer can start the process of the credit card account closure after intimating the cardholder. If the customer does not receive any reply from the cardholder within a 30 days period, the credit card account should be closed by the card issuer, subject to the payment of all dues by the customer.

Card closure should be updated with the credit information company
The credit card issuer must update the status of closure of the card with the Credit Information Company within 30 days.

Balance should be transferred to the account after closure
After the credit card account closure, any credit balance (if available in the credit card account), should be transferred to the bank account of the cardholder.