Reserve Bank of India has been a Banking Ombudsman programme for a long time, today I was glad to see prominent advertisements about it in major newspapers with an aim to popularize it. For me, whenever I had grievances and send them a fax threatening them to take it to RBI Ombudsman, they seem to act with more care. In general, I feel RBI is doing a fabulous job in protecting Indian consumers rights, whether it is on Don’t Call Registry or Credit Card online additional protection and on many of the other items.
So for what items you can approach RBI Ombudsman (more details in RBI website here), here is a short list:
- Your bank fail to adhere to the written promises it made
- Your bank fail to disclose up-front the important terms and conditions while selling a product/financial service
- Your bank didn’t communicate clearly about rates and charges
- Your bank not adhering to RBI guidelines or Banking Codes and Standards Board of India
So what you have to do if any of the above happens to you. First write to your bank, if they don’t respond or fix the issue by one month, you can approach RBI ombudsman through a letter, fax or email.