RBI Credit and Debit Card Directions 2025

If your bank delays closing your credit card beyond seven working days, it now owes you Rs 500 for every extra day. The Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks - Credit Cards and Debit Cards: Issuance and Conduct) Directions, 2025 (RBI/DOR/2025-26/155, issued 28 November 2025) rewrote the rulebook for commercial bank cards and handed cardholders four hard, enforceable rights.

Your card rights at a glance

These are not soft guidelines. Each is a line in a binding RBI Master Direction, which means a failure is something you can complain about and claim money for.

Until late 2025, credit and debit card conduct for commercial banks sat inside the 2022 Master Direction on Credit Card and Debit Card Issuance and Conduct. Para 93 of the new 2025 Directions repeals that older framework for commercial banks and replaces it with a single, updated rulebook effective from its 28 November 2025 issue.

For a cardholder, three practical things are now sharper:

• Closure is time-bound and priced. Earlier closure delays were a grievance you had to argue. Now Para 19 puts a hard seven-working-day clock on it and a fixed Rs 500-per-day penalty if the bank misses it, payable straight to you.
• Your consent is mandatory for upgrades and limit hikes. Para 34 bars the bank from quietly upgrading your card or pushing up your credit limit. Any change in terms needs your explicit consent.
• A three-day cushion before a default mark. Para 23(5) stops banks from rushing a past due report to credit information companies. The account must stay past due for more than three days before it is reported, which protects your credit score from a same-day slip.

1. Force a card closure (Para 19)

1. Send a written closure request through any of the bank's published channels: the helpline, email, internet banking, mobile app or a branch. Note the date and keep proof (a ticket number, email or screenshot).
2. Clear any outstanding dues. The bank must process closure once dues are settled.
3. Count seven working days from your request. If the card is still not closed, the Rs 500-per-day penalty starts running in your favour.
4. If the bank neither closes the card nor pays the penalty, escalate. A delayed closure is exactly the kind of deficiency the RBI Ombudsman handles.

2. Reverse an unwanted upgrade or limit hike (Para 34)

1. Check whether you gave explicit consent. A pre-ticked box, a missed-call deadline or silence is not consent under Para 34.
2. Write to the bank asking it to reverse the unilateral upgrade or limit change and to confirm in writing.
3. If it refuses, cite Para 34 of the 2025 Directions in a written grievance and give the bank 30 days.

3. Protect your credit score in the grace window (Para 23(5))

1. If you miss a due date by a day or two, pay immediately. Within the more-than-three-day window your account should not be reported as past due to credit information companies.
2. If your score still drops for a one or two day slip, raise a dispute with the bank and the credit information company, quoting Para 23(5).

Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak of Lucknow asked his bank on 2 March 2026 to close a credit card he no longer used. He cleared the small outstanding balance the same day and kept the email ticket number.

Seven working days passed and the card was still active, showing an annual fee debit. He wrote again on 16 March 2026, citing Para 19 of the RBI Credit and Debit Card Directions 2025 and claiming Rs 500 per calendar day of delay. The bank closed the card, reversed the fee and credited the penalty for the delayed days. The written citation, not the phone call, is what moved it.

The RBI is a public authority under the RTI Act 2005, and so are public sector banks. You can use the RTI Act to pin down how your bank is applying these Directions, which strengthens any parallel ombudsman complaint.

A clean RTI to a public sector bank's Central Public Information Officer might ask:

Under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act 2005, please provide:
1. The bank's internal circular or policy implementing Para 19 (seven-working-day closure and Rs 500 per day penalty) of the RBI Credit and Debit Card Directions 2025.
2. The number of credit card closure requests received and the number closed beyond seven working days in the last financial year, with total penalty paid to cardholders.
3. The bank's policy on obtaining explicit cardholder consent before any card upgrade or credit limit enhancement under Para 34.

Draft a clean version with the AI RTI Drafter. If the deficiency is the money or the delay itself, the faster route is a formal complaint to the RBI Ombudsman: see the banking ombudsman complaint guide and the steps to complain to the RBI against your bank. For the full RTI workflow, keep The RTI Playbook handy.

They are the Reserve Bank of India (Commercial Banks - Credit Cards and Debit Cards: Issuance and Conduct) Directions, 2025, reference RBI/DOR/2025-26/155, issued on 28 November 2025. They set the conduct rules for credit and debit cards issued by commercial banks, including closure timelines, consent for changes and reporting to credit information companies.

Within seven working days of your closure request, under Para 19. If the bank fails to complete closure within that window, it must pay you a penalty of Rs 500 per calendar day of delay until the card is closed.

No. Para 34 says card-issuers shall not unilaterally upgrade cards or enhance credit limits, and your explicit consent is required for any change in terms and conditions. Silence or a pre-ticked box is not consent.

Not immediately. Under Para 23(5), your account is reported as past due to credit information companies only after it remains past due for more than three days. That three-day cushion protects a brief, quickly-cleared slip.

Yes, for commercial banks. Para 93 repeals and supersedes the earlier Master Direction on Credit Card and Debit Card Issuance and Conduct, giving banks one current rulebook from 28 November 2025.

First send a written grievance citing Para 19 and claim the Rs 500-per-day penalty. If the bank does not resolve it within 30 days or replies unsatisfactorily, escalate to the RBI Ombudsman through cms.rbi.org.in. A delayed closure is a clear deficiency in service.

Yes. The Directions cover both credit and debit cards issued by commercial banks. The closure penalty in Para 19 is framed for credit cards, while consent and conduct protections run across card products.

Yes. The RBI and public sector banks are public authorities under the RTI Act 2005. You can file an RTI under Section 6(1) asking for the bank's implementing circular and its closure and consent compliance data, which helps build a parallel ombudsman complaint.

• Reserve Bank of India Master Direction RBI/DOR/2025-26/155, 28 November 2025: https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_ViewMasDirections.aspx?id=13155