Credit Card Fraud: Your Liability and How to Report It
Updated 30 March 2026
RBI rules give cardholders meaningful protection against fraudulent transactions, but that protection depends heavily on reporting quickly — delay works against you.
What limited liability actually means
Under RBI's customer liability rules, if a fraudulent transaction happens due to no fault of yours and you report it promptly (commonly within a few days of being notified), your liability can be zero or capped at a low amount. The protection weakens the longer you wait to report — beyond a certain window your liability can increase substantially, and beyond a longer window you may bear the full loss.
What to do immediately
Block the card the moment you notice an unauthorized transaction — through the issuer's app, net banking, or helpline, all of which work 24/7 for this specific purpose. File a formal dispute with the issuer in writing (email or the app's dispute flow) as soon as the card is blocked, and keep the reference number.
Reducing the risk in the first place
Enable transaction alerts for every spend, keep your card's international/online/contactless toggles off when you're not using them (most issuer apps let you switch these per-channel), and never share OTPs or card details over a call or message — no genuine bank support call will ask for either.