If money left your account but the payment failed, your bank must reverse it on its own and pay you Rs 100 for every day of delay, and you do not have to file a complaint to get either. This is a binding RBI rule, not a goodwill gesture from the bank.
A “failed transaction” here means money was debited from your account but the beneficiary was not credited or the service was not completed because of a system glitch, such as an ATM that took the money from your account but did not dispense cash, or a UPI transfer that debited you but never reached the other person. If the failure happened because of your own mistake, like entering a wrong account number, this auto-reversal rule does not apply.
The Reserve Bank of India issued a circular titled “Harmonisation of Turn Around Time TAT and customer compensation for failed transactions using authorised Payment Systems”, numbered RBI/2019-20/67, dated 20 September 2019. It fixes a maximum time by which your bank must put the money back, and a flat Rs 100 per day penalty if it misses that deadline. The money and the penalty are both credited to your account suo moto, meaning automatically, without you asking.
The deadline depends on how you paid. “T” is the transaction day, so “T+1” means by the end of the next calendar day, and “T+5” means by the end of the fifth day.
| Payment type | Auto-reversal deadline | When Rs 100 per day starts |
|---|---|---|
| UPI (person to person) | Beneficiary bank reverses by T+1 day | From the day after T+1, for every day still unpaid |
| IMPS | Beneficiary bank reverses by T+1 day | From the day after T+1, for every day still unpaid |
| ATM, your own bank or another bank | Pro-active reversal within a maximum of T+5 days | From the day after T+5, for every day still unpaid |
| Card or POS (point of sale) | Pro-active reversal within a maximum of T+5 days | From the day after T+5, for every day still unpaid |
So if a UPI transfer fails and the beneficiary cannot be credited, the money should be back by the next day. If it is not, the Rs 100 per day clock begins. For an ATM that swallowed your cash, the bank has up to five days to reverse it, after which the penalty applies for each extra day.
A key point: you do not have to claim the Rs 100. The bank is required to calculate the delay and credit the compensation into your account on its own. If you see the failed amount returned but no compensation despite a clear delay, the bank still owes you that penalty.
Most failed transactions reverse automatically within the deadline. When they do not, follow these steps in order.
Keep every screenshot showing the debit, the failed status, and your bank statement entry. These prove both the debit and the date, which fix the Rs 100 per day count.
No. The compensation rule covers failures caused by a system glitch where you were debited but the beneficiary was not credited or the service did not complete. A transfer to a wrong but valid account that you typed yourself is a customer error, not a system failure, so the auto-reversal and penalty do not apply. You would instead have to pursue a separate wrong-transfer recovery process.
No. Under the RBI circular both the reversal of the debited amount and the Rs 100 per day compensation are to be credited to your account suo moto, that is automatically. The complaint route exists only as a backup for when the bank fails to do this on its own.
It runs from the day after the deadline for your payment type. For UPI and IMPS the deadline is T+1, so the penalty starts from the day after T+1. For ATM, card and POS the deadline is T+5, so it starts from the day after T+5. The bank pays Rs 100 for each day the money stays unreversed past that point.
This is a classic failed transaction. The bank must pro-actively reverse it within a maximum of T+5 days. If the money is not back by then, Rs 100 per day of delay is due. If neither the reversal nor the penalty appears, raise a complaint with your bank, then escalate to the RBI Ombudsman.
Not if the reversal was late. If the amount was returned after the deadline, the Rs 100 per day for the delay period is still owed and should have been credited automatically. Raise this specifically with your bank, quoting the dates of debit and reversal, and escalate to the RBI Ombudsman if ignored.
After giving the bank a fair chance and a written complaint number, you can approach the RBI Ombudsman free of charge under the RB-IOS scheme through the RBI complaint portal at cms.rbi.org.in. See our walkthroughs linked below for the exact steps.
Check your bank statement and confirm the exact debit date, then count the days against the deadline for your payment type. If the money or the Rs 100 per day is missing, lodge a written complaint with your bank and keep the reference number. If the bank does not fix it, take it to the RBI Ombudsman.
For the full grievance route, read our banking ombudsman complaint guide and the step by step RB-IOS 2021 walkthrough. If your issue is a disputed card payment, see the credit card chargeback guide. For UPI limits and balance rules, see UPI balance check and per day limit. To learn how to demand records and timelines from public bodies, get The RTI Playbook.