Missed just 46 paise on credit card bill, charged over Rs 1,200 late fee

A credit-card customer has claimed that he was charged more than Rs 1,200 in late-payment charges after falling short of his Rs 10,649.46 bill by just 46 paise.Dr Samir Kagalkar shared the incident on X, tagging HDFC Bank, and said he had paid Rs 10,649 against the total bill of Rs 10,649.46, leaving only Rs 0.46 unpaid.According to Kagalkar, the small shortfall subsequently resulted in more than Rs 1,200 being charged as late-payment fees and other related charges. The amount he says was charged is more than 2,600 times the 46-paise shortfall."You sent me a credit card bill for INR 10,649.46. By error – I paid INR 10,649/-00 (missing out 46 paise)," Kagalkar wrote in his post. "And you have slapped me with over INR 1200/- late payment charges etc for miss of 46 PAISE??" he added, while asking the bank to reverse the charges.Kagalkar also shared the reference number of his interaction with the bank's customer-service team.RBI SAYS FRACTIONS BELOW 50 PAISE SHOULD BE IGNORED The 46-paise shortfall is notable because RBI has instructions on rounding off transactions.The Reserve Bank of India has said transactions should be rounded to the nearest rupee, with fractions below 50 paise ignored. Under this principle, an amount ending in 46 paise would be rounded down to the nearest rupee, while an amount ending in 50 paise or more would be rounded up.For instance, Rs 10,649.46 would be rounded to Rs 10,649, while Rs 10,649.50 would become Rs 10,650.The RBI has issued instructions to banks on rounding off transactions, including interest paid on deposits and interest charged on advances, to the nearest rupee.However, this rounding principle by itself does not establish how an individual credit-card account must be treated. The customer's payment, the amount recorded as outstanding and the bank's treatment of the account are separate matters.WHAT RBI SAYS ABOUT CREDIT CARD LATE FEESRBI also has separate rules governing late-payment charges on credit cards.Under its credit-card directions, a card issuer can report an account as "past due" or levy late-payment charges only when the account remains past due for more than three days.The RBI also says late-payment charges and other charges related to delayed payment should be levied only on the outstanding amount after the due date, and not on the total amount due.This means the rounding-off rule and the credit-card late-payment rules address two different aspects of the transaction.The former deals with how amounts involving fractions of a rupee are rounded, while the latter sets out when late-payment charges can be imposed and the amount on which such charges can be levied.CUSTOMER SEEKS REVERSAL OF CHARGESKagalkar has asked HDFC Bank to reverse the charges and questioned why such a large amount was levied after the 46-paise shortfall."Do you care to have this reversed ASAP?" he wrote in his post.His post has also prompted other users to share their experiences with credit-card charges.One X user, Vegi Prasad, suggested that Kagalkar approach the Banking Ombudsman at the RBI if the issue was not resolved.Another user, Pawan Kumar Das, claimed that he had faced a similar issue with an SBI credit card, involving charges after he sought cancellation of the card.These are individual accounts shared by users on social media and do not establish a broader pattern across banks.For Kagalkar, the issue remains centred on a tiny unpaid amount: 46 paise left against a Rs 10,649.46 credit-card bill, followed by more than Rs 1,200 in late-payment charges and other fees, according to his post.- EndsPublished On: Aug 19, 2026 10:29 IST