Banks To Deactivate Unused Credit Cards as directed by Reserve Bank of India. The RBI has asked banks and other issuers of the credit cards to deactivate unused credit cards. All such Credit Cards which are not used for over one year with effect from July 1. Further, issuers are required to close cards that have not been activated for 30 days since issuance from October 1.
Once the guidelines will be implemented, the over all credit card issuance of many of the banks will be reduced by up to 10%. It is because cancellation of inactive users could be as high as 35-40 per cent.
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Check out the RBI rules on closure of credit card:
1) The RBI directions say that any request for closure of a credit card should have to be honored within seven working days by the credit card-issuer, subject to payment of all dues by the cardholder.
2) The cardholder has to be immediately notified about the closure through email, SMS, etc about the closure of credit card.
3) The credit card issuer has to provide multiple channels for submission of request for closure of credit card account.
4) These include helpline, dedicated e-mail-id, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), prominently visible link on the website, internet banking, mobile-app or any other mode.
5) The card-issuer shall not insist on sending a closure request through post or any other means which may result in the delay of receipt of the request.
6) If the card issuer fails to process of closure of credit card within seven working days, it should pay penalty of ₹500 per day of delay to the customer till the closure of the account, provided there is no outstanding in the account.