RBI Directive on Card Payments for Subscriptions
Check the changes in the RBI Guidelines released on 31st March 2021, regarding card payments for Subscriptions.
Further to the
and the , RBI released a new circular on 31 March 2021, regarding registration of new card mandates. You can find the new RBI circular .RBI has issued the following guidelines for issuing banks to authorise mandates and collect recurring payments on credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid instruments. RBI has announced this step to make card transactions safer and secure.
- All mandate registrations must go through Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA). AFA is a process wherein a customer receives an OTP or card PIN during modification or revocation of the mandate and the first transaction.
- AFA is mandatory for registering mandates on cards. The maximum limit for registering mandates is ₹15,000. You can refer to the .
- At the time of registration, banks should provide customers with the option to choose the communication medium (SMS or email) to which the pre-debit notifications will be sent.
- Banks should send customers a pre-debit notification at least 24 hours before the actual debit. The notification must contain all the information regarding the upcoming debit. Customers should be provided with an option to opt-out of the particular debit or the mandate.
- Banks should also send a post-debit notification to the customers. This notification should contain all the information regarding the debit.
- Banks must provide customers with an online facility through which customers can withdraw from any e-mandate at any point in time. The customers will have to perform the AFA at the time of withdrawal.
- For all such withdrawn e-mandates, the acquiring banks should ensure that the respective businesses delete all customer payment information.
- Banks should set-up redressal system to address customers grievances. Card networks should also have in place a dispute resolution mechanism.
Handy Tips
You do not need to make any integration changes at your end. The circular applies to the issuing banks, and the banks need to implement the changes mentioned above.
The impact of the new guidelines is given below:
We will soon be enabling UPI Autopay on your Razorpay Dashboard. You can
that will allow your customers to choose UPI to make recurring payments.-
Mandates on UPI Autopay can be set up using ICICI, SBI and HDFC accounts on UPI collect flow.
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Only BHIM and Paytm UPI apps are supported on UPI Autopay.
If you do not want to use UPI Autopay, you can disable it from the Settings tab on the Subscriptions page from your Razorpay Dashboard.
Learn more about UPI Autopay from our
and .The RBI has given a 6 months extension (till 30 Sep 2021) to all issuing banks to comply with the guidelines set forth in the circular.
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Razorpay has partnered with Mastercard to launch MandateHQ - a plug-and-play solution that will allow issuing banks to offer standing instructions on credit cards, debit cards and pre-paid instruments in compliance with the RBI circular.
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We are working with most of the issuing banks to on-board them on MandateHQ and ensure a smooth transition by 30 Sep 2021. We will keep you posted when banks start going live.
Given below are some of the frequently asked questions.
Yes, subscription plans created and in the active state before 1 April will work post 1 April 2021.
As per the new circular released by RBI on 31 March 2021, no new mandate for recurring online transactions shall be registered by stakeholders, unless such mandates are compliant with the circular dated 21 August 2019.
We are working with most of the issuing banks to on-board them on MandateHQ and help them comply with the RBI circular before 30 Sep 2021. We will keep you posted when banks start going live.
No, the RBI circular is applicable only for issuing banks in India. International card mandates will continue to work.
Follow these steps to enable or disable payment methods (Cards and UPI):
- Log in to the Razorpay Dashboard.
- Navigate to Subscriptions → Settings.
- Configure the payment methods:
- Card: Enable this to accept recurring payments via cards for your subscriptions in any of our supported international currencies.
- UPI: Enable this to accept UPI payments when recurring charge is less than ₹15,000. Only INR is supported.
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