NRI Credit Card Payments

NRI Credit Card Payments

As per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines*, if you are an NR bank account holder, you can only make payments to your NR credit card using your NRE/NRO account. And as per our Card member T&Cs, customers holding a bank account in Non-Resident Status, have to mandatorily link their NR account to their Credit Card account for card payments.

If your existing bank account with Citi is maintained in Non-Resident (NR) Status, the resident status for your Citi Credit Card will also get updated as Non-Resident. As a next step, you are required to link your two accounts, i.e. – link your Citi Credit Card account to your Citi NR bank account.

This is because any payment made towards your credit card will only be accepted if it’s made from your linked Citi Non-Resident bank account(s). The bank’s systems will reject any payment which is from a source other than your linked Citi NRI Account.

How to link Citi Credit Card to NR account
You can provide the request to link your respective Citi Credit Card to your Citi NR account using our 24*7 CitiPhone helpline:
- 1. Call the CitiPhone Helpline number 1860 210 2484 or use +91 22 4955 2484 when calling us from outside of India
- 2. Post authentication of identity, place your request for linking your Credit Card and NR Account
Post request submission, the bank will take 24 to 72 hours to process your request. Once your request is approved, your credit card will be linked to your NR bank account and you will be able to make payments to your credit card from your NR account from the next working day and enjoy the various benefits and seamless services.

How to make a payment towards Citi Credit Card
Once you have linked your Citi Credit Card to your Citi NR account, you can use a number of options to make payments towards your Citi Credit Card outstanding from the next working day, such as:
- 1. Place Standing Instruction (SI) for payment via Citibank Online/Citi Mobile App (only from Linked NR Accounts)
- 2. Make Online Fund Transfers of the amount from your Linked NR Account to your NR Credit Card

Things to keep in mind when linking accounts
- Please make sure that the address on your NR account and credit card should match. Learn how to update your address here.
- Other personal details like name, date of birth, etc. should also match.
You can continue to enjoy the benefits and special offers on your Citi Credit Card and earn never expiring reward points.

If you want to maintain your Citi account as Domestic, please reach out to us on our 24*7 helpline.

Other FAQs
- Why have you returned my payment?
  - As per regulatory guidelines, payment towards NR cards is required to be made from a first party NRE/NRO account. The mentioned payment was not meeting one of the following criteria (i) Payment was not received from NRE/NRO account, (ii) Payment was not received from first party NRE/NRO account or (iii) Account source information is not available with us
- Will Citi charge Late Payment charges (LPC) after returning my payment?
  - Bank will not charge LPC if the payment was made before due date.
- Will Citi charge Interest after returning my payment?
  - Customers are requested to clear the outstanding. Citi will not charge Interest if the alternate payment is received by due date.
- Will my credit rating get impacted?
  - If customers make alternate payment which covers the minimum due, then the account will continue to be reported as Standard to bureau.
- Payment was done from my NRE/NRO account, so why have you returned my payment? (from non-identifiable payment modes)
  - For any payment made from NRE, identifiers are available for NEFT/ RTGS, and it will be validated if the payment is from the 1st party before returning of funds. NRO is not an identifier received today and hence no validation can be done by the bank. As per policy, payment has to be made only from an account owned by a Citi customer.
- I am not at the address where you have sent the DD, please cancel and return via online transfer. I can share my account details.
  - If you are not available to accept the DD, please provide an alternate Account No. along with verification details for us to initiate funds transfer. If alternate details are provided, please ensure DD is not cashed as we will be cancelling the DD.
- Why have you sent a DD in rupees to me overseas? I cannot deposit the same until I am in India.
  - Since the Card transactions are in INR, the refund will be made in INR only, we cannot provide DD in foreign currency. If the DD is not acceptable, please provide an alternate Account No. along with verification details for us to initiate funds transfer. If alternate details are provided, please ensure DD is not cashed as we will be cancelling the DD.
- I do not have funds to make payment and as you have returned my payment via DD. I will need to wait for DD to be liquidated and then make payment. Please ensure there are no charges or delinquency.
  - If the DD is not acceptable, please provide an alternate Account No. along with verification details for us to initiate funds transfer. If alternate details are provided, please ensure DD is not cashed as we will be cancelling the DD. We request you to make the alternate payment by the due date to avoid any adverse impact.
- Why is Citi returning the payments now, when my earlier payments were accepted?
  - As per the communication sent and basis internal review, we have changed the process and will not be accepting such payments, hence, the funds are being returned.
Note: Additionally, as per RBI guidelines^#, international spends done on NRI credit cards are to be notified to RBI on a periodic basis.

*Reserve Bank of India circular DBOD. AML.BC. No.109/14.01.001/2011-12 dated June 08, 2012.

^#Reserve Bank of India circular Ref: RBI/2015-16/390 A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 67 dated May 05, 2016 on Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulations, 2016.