Yesterday, my IDFC Power+ Credit Card's January statement arrived, and to my shock, it included INTEREST CHARGED! I was stunned as after all, I had paid the entire bill on time. But then it hit me as last month, I had a gut feeling that something about my approach might backfire. At the time, it seemed logical, so I didn't overthink on it much. Turns out, my gut was right!
So here's what happened, my card renews on 26 December and Renewal fees + GST was charged and waiver was credited in my credit card statement and as my card renewed I thought its right time to redeem reward points so I did a wallet addition on Amazon (I know it charges 2.36% but I paid it happily as I can buy vouchers for much better discount) and redeemed reward points by selecting the checkbox on OTP Page. Within 2 days the available reward points were redeemed as cash credit in my statement.
As my statement date is 25th of every month, and these two transactions (the renewal fees & reward point redemption) actually had both debits and credits, the debits were to get charged in my 25 Jan statement, but these credits actually lowered my total amount due for the 25 Dec statement. The IDFC App as well as BBPS also showed the total amount due reduced by this amount. So, I paid the left total amount due before the due date.
At this time I had realized that this is technically a kind of rotation of money for one month.
Now on 25th January 9:05 PM the statement was received on Email and I casually scrolled and found Interest charged with GST and instantly I called the customer care and he first said that you have considered the reward point redemption as payment but I instantly replied that your banking app & BBPS both showed this adjusted for TAD and as per RBI guidelines as well it is incorrect that you have charged me interest. He didn't argue with me at all and by 10:41 PM he raised a request and said upon approval your charges will be reversed within 7 Working Days.
Today i.e. 26th January at 2:37 PM (less than 24 non working hrs) I received an email that GST reversal has been done and when I checked the IDFC App both GST & Interest were revered! I was surprised with such fast & smooth process.
During this time I researched about it and found few points regarding this -
So here's what happened, my card renews on 26 December and Renewal fees + GST was charged and waiver was credited in my credit card statement and as my card renewed I thought its right time to redeem reward points so I did a wallet addition on Amazon (I know it charges 2.36% but I paid it happily as I can buy vouchers for much better discount) and redeemed reward points by selecting the checkbox on OTP Page. Within 2 days the available reward points were redeemed as cash credit in my statement.
As my statement date is 25th of every month, and these two transactions (the renewal fees & reward point redemption) actually had both debits and credits, the debits were to get charged in my 25 Jan statement, but these credits actually lowered my total amount due for the 25 Dec statement. The IDFC App as well as BBPS also showed the total amount due reduced by this amount. So, I paid the left total amount due before the due date.
At this time I had realized that this is technically a kind of rotation of money for one month.
Now on 25th January 9:05 PM the statement was received on Email and I casually scrolled and found Interest charged with GST and instantly I called the customer care and he first said that you have considered the reward point redemption as payment but I instantly replied that your banking app & BBPS both showed this adjusted for TAD and as per RBI guidelines as well it is incorrect that you have charged me interest. He didn't argue with me at all and by 10:41 PM he raised a request and said upon approval your charges will be reversed within 7 Working Days.
Today i.e. 26th January at 2:37 PM (less than 24 non working hrs) I received an email that GST reversal has been done and when I checked the IDFC App both GST & Interest were revered! I was surprised with such fast & smooth process.
During this time I researched about it and found few points regarding this -
- RBI has made clear guidelines for refunds within the same statement, previous statement debit and before due date refund & previous statement debit & refund + payment also done. But no clear directions for this condition.
- The transactions in my case cannot be treated as refund but as a credit or cashback.
- Logically this is a loophole that my next months debits have set off my payment for previous month and hence can be termed as money rotation.
- If this was the a case of refund, my interest charged would have been legible, but the bank's system showed me the wrong picture so would have fought against that.
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