IDFC First Bank Debit Card Rewards Mess – Customers Harassed for Bank’s Mistake?

[vickyprasad]

banker@idfcfirstbank.com
pno@idfcfirstbank.com

Ill mail tomorrow and tag both of them

 

[HumorSimpson]

View attachment 109600
Hum toh fakir aadmi hai jhola lekar chal padenge.

We have to zero the balance, before closing right ?

 

[rajarancho]

We have to zero the balance, before closing right ?

You can upi the balance to my upi id humor bro. Will dm.

 

[Dr.AMAN]

The fact that IDFC bank is ready to lose select and wealth customers and asking them to close the account means that they r pretty strict about this whole CC bill reward saga. The bank was leaking a lot of revenue and it started hurting their share price. Maybe thats y they have started clamping all revenue leak points. Heard that those who didnt maintain the MAB for wealth/select for last 3 years r also getting account downgrade warning emails. They r tightening up their screws from all areas.

 

[Centurion_wala]

The fact that IDFC bank is ready to lose select and wealth customers and asking them to close the account means that they r pretty strict about this whole CC bill reward saga. The bank was leaking a lot of revenue and it started hurting their share price. Maybe thats y they have started clamping all revenue leak points. Heard that those who didnt maintain the MAB for wealth/select for last 3 years r also getting accounr downgrade warning emails. They r tightening up their screws from all areas.

Well, they gained enough customer base that they're now ready to let go the very miniscule amount of account holders who use and maintain accounts for paying CC bills as compared to their whole customer base so it won't make a difference to them.
The only thing that might work in our favour is to speak up on Social Media with posts like one that @TechnoFino posted but then again you have people defending the bank for calling up customers and harassing them for making payments.

 

[2025]

The fact that IDFC bank is ready to lose select and wealth customers and asking them to close the account means that they r pretty strict about this whole CC bill reward saga. The bank was leaking a lot of revenue and it started hurting their share price. Maybe thats y they have started clamping all revenue leak points. Heard that those who didnt maintain the MAB for wealth/select for last 3 years r also getting account downgrade warning emails. They r tightening up their screws from all areas.

Whatever little interaction I had with idfc customer care people, they look like more professional. Many were vocal about their digital banking experience and no frill banking.

 

[quino]

then again you have people defending the bank

you got one right between your message & mine.

 

[Dr.AMAN]

Whatever little interaction I had with idfc customer care people, they look like more professional. Many were vocal about their it infrastructure and no frill banking experience.

Ya no doubt their customer service is top notch. Their approach to handling this reward point issue could have been different and better(and a little forgiving).

 

[vickyprasad]

One of our members reported that his account was frozen and he was asked to visit the branch. When he went today, the branch manager questioned him about transactions made since January 2025. In the end, they asked him to close the account. He had around 40,000 reward points, which are now gone. It seems the ultimate motive of this bank is to somehow prevent customers from redeeming their reward points.

i have 80k points blocked redemption 😭

 

[HumorSimpson]

i have 80k points blocked redemption 😭

Did you get mail or while redeeming you noticed ?

 

[captaintorchtm]

Zavo is perfectly fine and used 5413 MCC, which is set for credit card bill payment officially by NPCI.

Idfc call it "All Unrecognized Debit Card MCC" as this mcc is unrecognised for many old systems.

6012 is also widely used for it and it was already excluded.

Now why would bank block the transactions on perfectly fine dedicated mcc 5413, instead of excluding it from rewards.

With ever changing technology, a new app comes up everyday, banks technology should be updated and modified accordingly. Tell us cases of fraud by zavo or any other blocked app if any because all are using bharat billpay.

 

[rajarancho]

i have 80k points blocked redemption 😭

How much money rotated to gain this points wealth ? Which apps ? ( Don't worry I am not from idfc. Asking for a friend)..

 

[Dr.AMAN]

How much money rotated to gain this points wealth ? Which apps ? ( Don't worry I am not from idfc. Asking for a friend)..

That is atleast Rs.10 lakh credit card bills gone without any return.🙄

 

[Card doctor]

I have Idfc account for long time and I'm very happy with it , this is actually a very good account to park funds and Apply in IPO

But this blocking this made me nervous and will need to keep a close eye on this one for sure

 

[vickyprasad]

How much money rotated to gain this points wealth ? Which apps ? ( Don't worry I am not from idfc. Asking for a friend)..

Its Wealth account and app used for ZAVO this app u cant use it because idfc blocked this merchat

 

[abhimani02]

Worst scamester bank in such case is Axis for whom there is always new low to be hig

 

[dealminer]

View attachment 109600
Hum toh fakir aadmi hai jhola lekar chal padenge.

Bank visit? Or can be done via app?

 

[BK7]

So, does this mean that IDFC will no longer issue any reward points in the future and will also reverse the reward points earned on credit card payments? 🙄

 

[Copycat]

I don’t know why you think I’m being silly, but after reading this, I’m quite sure you’re not fully aware of customers’ rights. In India, a customer can open a bank account with any bank of their choice. Just as a customer cannot dictate terms to a bank, a bank also cannot dictate which apps or platforms a customer is allowed to use.

Thank you for your reply. You clarified a few points that puzzled me, regarding your approach to the issue
I would disagree with you on this point. As I mentioned, w.r.t. to risk management the RBI gives the banks the fullest authority to decide whether to not to allow a transaction to proceed. For me, with just a manual scan, I saw something that bothered me. I'm pretty certain the bank's automated system has picked up on that too.

I would also disagree with your contention about the way it was handled despite it being a debit card rather than a credit card transaction. From the viewpoint of risk management, if the bank notices something suspicious, they are obligated to protect their customer. The card type doesn't matter. With the proliferation of payment apps (Abhishek and Arindam seem to be unearthing one each day, every time I check 🙂), banks dedicate a significant amount of resources to protecting the money of their customers

Regarding the other merchants that you speak about, I have no idea. I spoke solely about Zavo. And the actual reason, may be something quite different. It might just be a failed transaction due to some misconfiguration. We've seen so many of those in the past, that have been rectified by banks later. The best way would be to contact the bank and ask them the reason

And, you may very well be right. It may have had nothing to do with it being a risky transaction and everything to do with the wrong MCC/points fiasco

I agree with you when you say that if the intention was to block reward points, a better way would have been to block the whole MCC rather than the merchant. I'm sure you are well aware that analysing a bunch of transactions and configuring a system takes time. If that was the reason for the Zavo block, it looks like IDFC chose the interim approach of blocking just one (or maybe more) merchants, they were sure about rather than blanket banning the MCC and excluding merchants they were not sure about. Don't you agree that is much more customer friendly?

It now looks like the MCC that Zavo uses will get no points. So can someone who used to use Zavo, try a transaction and see if the merchant is still blocked? I would have tried myself, but I have never used Zavo; nor do I want to.

 

[Tamraj Kilvish]

Achha hua maine IDFC me account nahi open kiya 😂

Now IDFC block most of the mcc including utility too 🤣