Port to Card Network (Rupay, Visa, Mastercard) of your choice from 1st October, says RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has issued a circular to Banks, NBFCs, and Card Networks whereby Debit, Credit and Prepaid Card users will now be able to choose or port to their desired card network from American Express, Diners Club International, Mastercard, Rupay, or Visa, starting October 1. Thus, Card issuers (Banks, NBFCs, and 3rd Parties) are alarmed to not enter into any arrangement or agreement with card networks that restrain them from availing the services of other card networks. Also, they will compulsorily have to issue cards across more than one card network.

RBI observed that arrangements existing between card networks and card issuers (banks and non-banks) are not conducive to the availability of choice for customers. Hence, they will be allowing Customers to Port Visa, Rupay, Mastercard, etc in Bank Cards.

Card issuers will provide an option to their eligible customers to choose any one among the multiple card networks (Visa, Rupay, Mastercard, AMEX, Diners Club International). This option can be exercised by customers either at the time of issue or at any subsequent time.

American Express, Diners Club International, MasterCard, Rupay, and Visa all have their own pros and cons related to online shopping/payment offers, offline spending offers, reward points, acceptance, etc. Rupay distinguishes itself as it is the only card network that supports UPI payments on its credit cards. However, Rupay will take time to get accepted worldwide. Recently, Rupay Forex Cards were approved by the RBI.

Dimers in the New RBI Rule - Get Credit Card on Any Card Network of Your Choice thread (by @beastboy) have said that having different variants will be helpful for benefiting across various payment requirements. Some are confused on how Amazon Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card, Tata Neu HDFC Card, Kotak Mojo Visa Card, and other co-branded cards will work. Also, all banks allowing to choose from the 5 card networks seems highly unlikely. Most of them believe that Rupay is the way to go because of ‘make in India’, UPI acceptance, credit card offers, and to break the duopoly of Mastercard and Visa in India.

The official announcement on How to Port from Visa to Rupay / Mastercard to Rupay / Mastercard to Visa, etc is awaited. Possibly you will be required to contact your card issuer (Banks, NBFCs, 3rd Parties) and request for the same. This porting process is expected to be free of charge. However, new card making, delivery and other charges may apply.

You can read the official RBI Draft Circular of Arrangements with Card Networks for the issue of Debit, Credit and Prepaid Cards here. With this move, Rupay, Visa, and Mastercard are expected to compete via better offers and services so that their existing customers don’t port.