Private Banks Are Using Paid Premium Numbers for Customer Service; RBI says No Guidelines Issued By It
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Consumers could find themselves badly out of pocket on calling banks on the numbers provided to raise a dispute or make an inquiry. These are special number starting with 1860 that are often mistaken for toll free numbers by ordinary people.
In fact, numbers starting with 1860 are premium numbers and impose a higher charge on callers.
Several private sector lenders such as ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Citi Bank, Karur Vyasa Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank are using premium numbers from the 1860 series (not the 1800 series, which is the toll free number) for customer queries.
Interestingly, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not issued any guidelines or circular on use of paid premium number as customer care or helpline number, as revealed by a reply received under Right to Information (RTI) Act. This only means that RBI has tacitly allowed banks to find yet another way to extract charges from consumers, when such services are offered free to consumers in most industries.
It is also found that while private sector lenders are using 1860 premium paid numbers for customer care, public sector banks (PSBs) are using toll free numbers to connect with customers.
Numbers like 1800-xxx-xxxx are toll free which means the caller does not incur any costs. On the other hand, numbers starting with 1860 are premium numbers and the caller is charged for the call depending upon the duration.
Many Mobile networks do not connect to 1800 numbers at peak hours as they do not get any monetory benefit in this. 1860 numbers always get through. Mobile companies are a part of this problem too. Email is best way to reach banks these days.
RBI’s response to our RTI query was- “We have not issued any specific guidelines in this regard. We found that the RBI circular has only asked banks to provide specific numbers to allow consumers to connect with nodal officers.
So the next time you are calling a bank and are in for a long wait, you may want to pay attention to the number on which you call and be aware that you are paying the charges.
Source- Moneylife! What is your take on this?
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Recieved this from hdfc yesterday
Except Jio, all other telcos charge ₹2/min for calls made to 1860 numbers even with their “Truly Unlimited” plans. I think someone should petition TRAI first regarding this disparity.
You mean to say we should petition TRAI asking them to tell JIO to charge? 😀
On a serious note everyone is aware of it. They want to just make money one way or the other.
So there is a deal between banks and the telcos?
Always try to find the number mentioned when calling from outside India which would be a landline number with std code. For example Axis bank has number +91-22-67987700 as per https://www.axisbank.com/bank-smart/phone-banki...
Dial our new PhoneBanking number 18002026161 / 18602676161 from anywhere in India for your banking queries. Save it as ‘HDFC Bank Care’ for all future calls.