Starting September 6, credit cardholders in India will have the flexibility to choose their preferred card network (Mastercard, RuPay, or Visa) when applying for a new credit card or renewing an existing one. This change is a result of the Reserve Bank of India‘s (RBI) guidelines aimed at enhancing customer experience and promoting competition in the digital payments landscape.When you apply for a debit card or credit card, you usually do not get an option to choose the card network. Your bank typically has an exclusive arrangement with any of the card networks such as Visa, Mastercard or RuPay, etc. So, the banks issue cards on their preferred network.

“Card issuers shall provide an option to their eligible customers to choose any one among the multiple card networks. This option may be exercised by customers either at the time of issue or at any subsequent time,” RBI had stated in its draft circular.

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Note that above does not apply to credit card issuers with 10 lakh or less active cards. The circular does not apply to card issuers that issue credit cards through their own approved card network.

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