The idea of providing a dedicated helpline for credit cards itself shows the kind of importance being given to the financial product which is being offered by most of the banks and other financial institutions in India.
The increase in number of credit card users proportionally increases the number of queries related to credit card. Hence, most of the top banks, in a view to provide better customer service for their credit card customers, started offering a dedicated helpline to resolve all the queries and concerns related to the product. Some banks have a separate division to deal with credit cards hence would provide a devoted customer service helpline for credit cards.
A list of bank specific credit card customer care pages that contain details of credit card customer care helplines numbers, toll free numbers, e-mail addresses, grievance redressal process and other details are provided below. The pages would help you know about multiple customer service channels offered by each bank.
Customer service has become a primary focus area for banks. As part of their efforts to provide consistent customer experience, they are providing more than a couple of channels to address customer concerns and grievances. Discussed below are different types of customer service channels offered by the banks to resolve all the queries and concerns related to credit cards.
The primary service helpline provided by most of the banks is a toll free number to resolve credit card related queries. While some banks offer a separate toll-free helpline number for each state or major city, other banks will have a common number for all the customers across the country. An easy way to identify a toll free number is that it starts with 1800. All other numbers that start with 18 are not toll free.
A few banks offer the toll free service only for some telecom users only. If you find ‘For BSNL/MTNL telecom users’ under the number, you may have to call from MTNL/BSNL landline or mobile number to get the free call benefit. The toll free credit card customer service numbers, in most cases, are available 24x7 to make it accessible for the customers all the time.
Credit card customers can call the toll free numbers for all general queries including to check credit card balance, payment due amount, available credit limit and cash limit, last transaction details, to raise PIN change requests and the like. While most of the common queries will be answered by the interactive voice response service (IVRS), queries which require human interaction would be diverted to the customer care agents.
Some banks provide a dedicated customer service helpline to resolve all kind of credit card related queries and concerns. The IVRS for dedicated helplines is more specific and includes only credit card related requests and services. Credit cardholders can find the helpline number on their credit cards, credit card statements, and in bank websites. The number may or may not be toll free. For banks with dedicated credit card customer care helplines, it is recommended for the credit cardholders to use the helpline instead of the generic customer care number for all their credit card specific queries and concerns.
There are a few credit card requests which should be raised in e-writing or there are a few cardholders who would like to put their concern in writing. In such cases, credit cardholders can use the customer service e-mail provided by the banks to raise their queries/concerns or requests. Some banks offer a common e-mail address for all the customer queries, while most banks offer a dedicated e-mail address for credit card specific concerns. The customer care e-mail address specific for credit care are more impactful than the generic ones.
While raising requests through e-mail, make sure to send the e-mail from your registered e-mail address or the e-mail address included in the bank records. Banks are more likely to respond to mails from a registered e-mail address compared to the non-registered ones. Further, make sure to include your credit card details such as the credit card number, your name and address to make it easy for the bank to identify and authenticate the details.
Banks also allow credit card customers to raise their requests and concerns in writing. They either provide the communication address of a common customer care cell or a credit card specific customer care office. Credit cardholders can send their requests/concerns to the common address in case credit card specific customer service division is not available.
While sending a written request make sure to includes all your identification details such as name, mobile number, address, and credit card details including credit card number, customer ID, if any, type of card, etc. However, don’t disclose credit card CVV, PIN, expiry date and other sensitive details in any form of communication, even when sending requests to the bank. The banks require only your credit card number to access your details.
Compared to a phone call and an e-mail, requests raised through post may take a little while. Hence, be patient through the process.
Of late banks are setting up customer service cells, mostly at their headquarters, to enable customers have a direct interaction with the bank officials. Credit cardholders can walk-in to the centres during business hours and report their queries or concerns in person. The address and details of the contact person are typically provided in the bank’s website.
Another online method offered by the banks to raise complaints or concerns in the through the complaint form available online. Most of the times the complaint form is common for all the products and can be used to raise requests or complaints related to credit cards as well. Customers who wish to raise requests through the form, just need to fill all the required details and submit it. After submitting the request, the system will generate an acknowledgement number or complaint registration number which should be retained for future enquiries.
Some banks provide different online forms for complaints and feedback/suggestions. Hence, make sure to pick up the right form based on the request type.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made it mandatory for all the banks to have a grievance redressal policy in place to define the whos, whats and wheres of handling grievances against various products and services offered by the banks. Accordingly, every bank has a grievance redressal mechanism in place, which defines how the grievances should be escalated, the concerned officers at bank level, redressal mechanism and all other things related to handling customer complaints. Most banks have made their grievance redressal policies accessible on the bank’s website so that customers can go through it and use it whenever necessary.
Essentially the grievance redressal system defines the ways to escalate any issue or concern related to a banks product or service. The escalation matrix includes branch managers, regional officers, nodal officer, principal nodal officers, banking ombudsman and other higher officials who are specially appointed to resolve grievances. The policy provides contact details and various channels to escalate the issue hence provides multiple ways for the customer to seek proper resolution.
Browse bank wise customer care details for credit card support in India.
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Every bank provides a helpline number to raise or report any kind of issues or concerns or feedback related to credit cards and their services. The primary point of contact for any credit cardholder is the customer care numbers imprinted on the flipside of a credit card. In most cases, the numbers are dedicated to credit card related services hence should be contacted in the first instance.
If there is no response from these numbers, cardholders can visit the bank website and check for some toll-free customer care numbers and other numbers specific to the concern they are looking for. Some banks provide different customer care number for each service. Contacting a dedicated helpline will yield better results compared to contacting general numbers.
For some reasons, if you’re not able to contact the customer care through phone, you can use the e-mail and SMS service provided by the banks to raise your concerns. One must visit respective bank website to know the e-mail IDs and SMS formats and numbers related to credit card requests and services.
If a specific concern is not addressed, customers also have an option to escalate the issue to the next level officer. Every bank has grievance redressal in place, as per the RBI guidelines, using which credit card customers can escalate the issues to the highest level possible till the query is resolved.
16 April 2018
