Your Bank Owes You ?100 a Day If It Doesn't Fix Your Credit Report on Time
Most people find out their credit report has an error at the worst possible moment — mid-loan application, staring at a rejection they don't understand.
Then comes the real frustration: filing a complaint, and waiting. And waiting.
Until October 2023, that wait had no real cost to the bank or credit bureau. Now it does. The Reserve Bank of India has put a price tag on delay — literally. If your complaint about wrong credit information isn't resolved in 30 days, you start earning ?100 for every day it drags on.
Here's exactly how the rule works, who pays, and how to actually use it.
Why This Rule Exists
Credit Information Companies (CICs) like CIBIL, Experian, Equifax, and CRIF Highmark maintain your credit report using data banks and NBFCs send them. When that data is wrong — a loan marked unpaid when you cleared it, a card shown as defaulted when it wasn't — it can quietly wreck your credit score for months.
The law already required these corrections to happen fast. Section 21(3) of the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 gives credit institutions and CICs 30 days, combined, to fix reported errors. In practice, though, there was no direct financial consequence for missing that deadline. Complaints could sit for weeks with no penalty.
RBI's October 26, 2023 circular changed that by attaching real money to real delay.
How the ?100-a-Day Compensation Actually Works
The math is simple on the surface: 30 days to resolve, ?100 per day after that. But the responsibility is split between two players, and that's where it gets interesting.
The bank (or NBFC) gets 21 days. Once you or the CIC informs them of an error, they have 21 calendar days to send corrected data.
The credit bureau gets the remaining 9 days. After receiving the correction, the CIC has until day 30 (from your original complaint) to update your report and confirm resolution.
If either side blows their part of the timeline, they personally pay for the extra days they caused. If both delay, both pay — apportioned based on how much each contributed to the overall delay.
For example: if your bank takes 25 days to respond instead of 21, and the CIC takes its full 9 days after that, your total resolution takes 34 days. That's 4 days of compensation — but only the bank pays, since the CIC stayed within its own window.
Who Actually Pays You
This isn't a lump sum from one entity — it's apportioned:
- Bank/NBFC delay only → the bank pays.
- CIC delay only → the CIC pays.
- Both delay → compensation is split on a weighted-average basis, proportional to how many days each party overshot.
If your complaint touches more than one bank (say, two loans on your report both have errors), the compensation gets divided across all the delaying banks based on their individual share of the total delay days.
What You Need to Do
- File the complaint directly with the CIC or the concerned bank — whichever is easier for you. If multiple banks are involved, file with the CIC; they're required to coordinate with all lenders on your behalf.
- Provide your bank account or UPI ID upfront in the complaint form. Compensation is transferred within 5 working days of resolution, and you're responsible for giving accurate payment details.
- Track the resolution date. That's officially the day the corrected credit report is sent to your registered email or postal address — not the day someone tells you it's "in process."
- If compensation is wrongly denied, you can escalate to the RBI Ombudsman under the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2021, or to the Consumer Education and Protection Cell for institutions not yet covered under that scheme.
What This Rule Doesn't Cover
A few important carve-outs:
- Disputes that already have a remedy under Section 18 of CICRA, 2005 (these go through arbitration/conciliation instead).
- Internal administrative or HR matters at the CIC/bank.
- Disagreements over how your credit score itself is calculated — this rule is about factual data errors, not scoring models.
- Complaints already pending before a consumer court, tribunal, or similar forum.
When Did This Start Applying
The framework became mandatory six months after the circular — around late April 2024. Banks, NBFCs, and CICs were required to have systems in place by then, and non-compliance exposes them to penal action under CICRA, 2005.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much compensation can I actually get? ?100 per calendar day of delay beyond the 30-day resolution window, split between the bank and CIC based on who caused the delay. There's no cap mentioned in the circular, so it accrues for as long as the delay continues.
Q: Do I need a lawyer or an ombudsman to claim this? No. The compensation is meant to be automatic once your complaint crosses 30 days unresolved. You only need to approach the RBI Ombudsman or CEPC if the bank or CIC wrongly refuses to pay.
Q: What if my bank says the delay was the CIC's fault, and vice versa? That's exactly why the rule apportions payment based on actual days each party overshot its own window (21 days for the bank, 9 for the CIC). You don't need to arbitrate this yourself — the CIC is required to work this out and inform you of the split.
Q: Does this apply to all banks and NBFCs? It applies to commercial banks, small finance banks, regional rural banks, co-operative banks, NBFCs (including housing finance companies), All-India Financial Institutions like NABARD and SIDBI, asset reconstruction companies, and all CICs. Payments Banks are excluded.
Q: What counts as the "resolution date" for calculating my compensation? The date your corrected Credit Information Report (CIR) is actually sent to your registered email or postal address — not the date someone internally marks the ticket as closed.
Q: Can I get compensation for a dispute about my credit score being too low? No. The framework explicitly excludes complaints about how the credit score or scoring model itself is computed. It only covers factual inaccuracies in the underlying credit information.
Q: What if my complaint involves errors reported by multiple banks? File it with the CIC. They're required to coordinate with every bank involved and give you one comprehensive resolution, with compensation apportioned across whichever banks caused the delay.
