Scorecard

Does it actually help?

Outcome labels say how a complaint was closed. They do not say whether my problem was solved or whether anyone read what I wrote. So I have marked every complaint on those two questions as well. These are my judgements, not the RBI's.

13times it helped

9times it partly helped

10times it did not

6thrown out through my own mistake

6 of 19closures that did not deal with my reply

Did the Ombudsman help?

Helped

Partly helped

Did not help

My own mistake

Cannot say

Pending

"Helped" means the problem was fixed or I was paid because of the complaint. "Partly" means something was fixed but the closure left out a substantial part or got a fact wrong.

Did the closure deal with my reply?

Yes

In part

Counted only for the 19 complaints where the bank's response was shared with me and I replied. "Yes" means the office acted on a point in my reply or went back to the bank with it.

My overall view

If the question is whether to file, the answer is yes. Leaving aside the ones I spoiled myself, about two in three of my complaints got me something, and most of those banks had already said no in writing. Nothing else available to a bank customer in India does that for free in a month.

If the question is whether it is a fair hearing, the answer is: sometimes. The office is at its best when the bank is plainly in the wrong and can fix it cheaply. It is at its weakest when the bank or bureau denies the problem, because then somebody has to weigh two accounts, and the Scheme is built to settle, not to decide.

What it does well

It makes banks answer. In case after case the first real reply I received was the one the bank wrote for the RBI.
It punishes a bank for ignoring it. My largest payment, ₹50,000, was for the bank missing the office's deadline.
Some officers work the file. In the GST invoice case the office went back to the bank after each of my three replies. In the credit limit case it put its own questions to the bank. In an application case it found that the bank "made contradictory claims".
It enforces what it records. Twice a promised payment did not arrive; twice a second complaint produced it within days.
It is getting faster. Four complaints filed in 2024 and 2025 took over 100 days. None in 2026 has taken more than 43.

Where it fails

The reply to the bank's response is sometimes not engaged with. In 6 of 19 cases the closure summarised my reply as "reiterated his grievance", or said it had been "duly considered", and then decided on the bank's account. In one, an RTI reply showed my comments were not referred to in the internal note at all. The credit bureau complaints.
A wrong fact in the bank's submission can pass straight into the closure. A dispute date a week before the purchase. A statement that no evidence had been received, sixteen minutes before it was. The laptop chargeback.
"Settled" does not need the complainant to agree. Complaints were closed as fully settled while a fix was still pending, and as resolved with my consent on the strength of a phone call in which I gave none.
There is no review. Under the 2026 Scheme only an Award can be appealed. An RTI reply confirmed that no provision allows a closure to be revisited, or an entity's incorrect submission to be corrected.
Root causes are out of reach. Seven complaints against six institutions were about my email address sitting on other people's records. Each fixed the one record. None was asked how an unverified address got there.
Compensation follows the bank's offer, not the harm. The Scheme allows up to ₹3 lakh for time and harassment without any financial loss. One closure refused compensation because there was no financial loss.
Quality varies by who handles it. Closure letters range from a single sentence to a reasoned page. You do not choose the office.

Two cases in detail

Did not help

The credit bureau complaints

A duplicate credit profile, three declined applications, four complaints closed without a finding, and what the RTI replies showed about how the decision was recorded.

Read the deep dive → Did not help

The laptop chargeback

Four specific requests about how the bank handled a card dispute. The closure answered none of them and repeated a date that could not be right.

Read the deep dive →

Case by case

Filed	Complaint	Did it help?	Reply dealt with?	My verdict
8 Oct 2026	Axis Bank Spend-offer voucher denied after the purchase was converted to EMI	Pending	–	Pending.
8 Oct 2026	American Express Emails from the bank's test system sent to a real customer	Partly helped	In part	Partly. The order set out my reply in detail and the office advised an apology on top of the points. Compensation and the test-data point were not taken up.
5 Oct 2026	ICICI Bank Chargeback for a defective laptop declined on proof of delivery	Did not help	No	No. The closure restated the bank's chronology, wrong date included, said my reply was "examined and duly considered", and did not mention any of the four things I had asked for.
5 Oct 2026	TransUnion CIBIL Third attempt on the same grievance closed as duplicate	Did not help	–	No. Closed as a duplicate although it concerned things that happened after the earlier closure.
22 Sep 2026	Federal Bank Chasing the ₹5,000 that was not paid	Helped	–	Yes. Paid within days of the bank being asked.
14 Sep 2026	Kotak Mahindra Bank The bank's reply to me was addressed to the other customer	Partly helped	In part	Partly. This time the order set out my rebuttal properly and the bank admitted the misaddressed letter. The wrongly recorded consent in the first case was never corrected.
7 Sep 2026	TransUnion CIBIL Complaint closed as "suggestions and queries"	Did not help	–	No. A complaint that named a duplicate profile, a refusal to disclose and unauthorised disputes was closed as containing no specific deficiency.
2 Sep 2026	IDFC FIRST Bank Chasing the ₹50,000 that was not paid	Helped	–	Yes, and quickly. Paid two days after filing.
31 Aug 2026	Kotak Mahindra Bank Another customer's record carrying my email since a 2015 bank merger	Partly helped	No	Partly. The address was deactivated. The closure said the office had "not received any new aspects" from me and then relied on a phone call as my consent.
17 Aug 2026	TransUnion CIBIL Two credit profiles under one PAN	Did not help	No	No. A reply under the Right to Information Act later showed the office's internal note listed only the bureau's submissions; my comments, which had reached the office, are not referred to in it. A second reply confirmed the Scheme has no provision to review such a closure. This is the complaint that changed my view of the process.
16 Aug 2026	HDFC Bank Bank would not say in writing what my credit limit was	Partly helped	Yes	Partly. The office asked the bank its own questions and advised an apology, which shows the file was read. There was no finding on the delay and no compensation.
16 Aug 2026	IDFC FIRST Bank GST invoice dated three months after the charge	Helped	Yes	Yes. The office went back to the bank after each of my replies until the credit note was promised. This is the process working as it should.
14 Aug 2026	Yes Bank My email on two other customers' records	Partly helped	In part	Partly. The email was removed. The closure described the bank's defence as though I had complained of my own data being disclosed, which was the reverse of the complaint, and refused compensation for lack of financial loss although I had claimed under the head that does not need one.
2 Aug 2026	Federal Bank Credit card controls broken in the app for months	Partly helped	No	Partly. The complaint got the bank moving and the app was fixed two weeks after closure. But the case was closed as "fully settled" on the bank's statement about a workaround I had reported as broken.
16 Jul 2026	SBI Cards Strangers typed my email into card applications, twice	Partly helped	In part	Partly. The suppression happened only because the office sent my reply back to the issuer. The repeat failure was never addressed.
7 Jul 2026	IDFC FIRST Bank ₹50,000 because the bank missed the Ombudsman's deadline	Helped	In part	Yes. The office used its advisory power when the bank did not respond on time. My root-cause question was noted and left unanswered. The payment then went missing and needed its own complaint.
7 Jul 2026	ICICI Bank Bank admits my email was linked to someone else's home loan	Helped	No	Yes on the outcome, which came from the bank's own admission. My reply was recorded as "reiterated his original complaint" and the remaining questions were closed in one sentence.
7 Jul 2026	IndusInd Bank A hard enquiry on my credit report with no application behind it	Helped	In part	Yes. Removal, ₹10,000, and a line advising the bank to avoid recurrence. The root cause was noted as my "concern" and left there.
29 Apr 2026	IndusInd Bank A cc'd email that became a complaint by accident	My own mistake	–	An accident, not a complaint.
24 Apr 2026	TransUnion CIBIL Loan enquiry alerts for strangers arriving at my email	Did not help	No	No. My reply was summarised as "reiterated the grievance". But the bureau's response listed the lenders involved, and that list is what made the next round of complaints possible.
16 Mar 2026	Kotak Mahindra Bank A 2023 service request the bank could no longer find	Helped	In part	Mostly. The fix and an apology came. The closure recorded my point about the lost request and did nothing with it.
16 Mar 2026	IndusInd Bank Bank's account of an application contradicted by its own emails	Helped	Yes	Yes. The closure says in terms that the bank "made contradictory claims". That finding came from reading my evidence.
6 Feb 2026	HDFC Bank Co-branded card stuck in processing	Helped	–	Yes. Eleven days, and a call before closing.
6 Feb 2026	Kotak Mahindra Bank Filed ten days after complaining to the bank	My own mistake	–	My mistake. Filed too early.
5 Feb 2026	American Express Filed the day after complaining to the issuer	My own mistake	–	My mistake. Filed too early.
19 Jul 2025	ICICI Bank Re-filing a complaint already rejected on merits	My own mistake	–	My mistake, though it shows the trap: the first complaint was rejected for a missing document, and there is no way to supply it afterwards.
3 Jul 2025	Axis Bank Second complaint filed while the first was still open	My own mistake	–	My mistake. A duplicate filed out of impatience.
5 Apr 2025	Axis Bank Three months of disputed card charges and copy-paste replies	Helped	Yes	Yes. The office advised compensation and called me before closing. It took 104 days.
5 Apr 2025	Federal Bank Card application complaint closed as a commercial decision	Did not help	–	No. Closed in 13 days as a commercial decision under a clause about premature complaints, which did not match the reasoning in the letter.
5 Apr 2025	IndusInd Bank Application rejected for a credit score of "-1" when the real score was above 800	Helped	Yes	Yes, on the point that mattered: it found a deficiency in the vague reason and said so in terms. It never asked why the bank saw "-1". That turned out to be a duplicate profile at the bureau, which I found a year later.
2 Mar 2025	ICICI Bank Unused add-on card reported as an active account	Did not help	In part	No. The closure noted my reply but held the missing credit report against me. Nobody asked me for it before closing.
5 Nov 2024	AU Small Finance Bank Card declined under an internal policy the bank would not spell out	Partly helped	–	Only indirectly. The reason arrived from the bank two weeks after I filed. The closure treated the whole complaint as a request for credit.
8 Sep 2024	SBI Cards Filed one day after complaining to the issuer	My own mistake	–	My mistake. I filed a day after writing to the issuer.
9 Aug 2024	HDFC Bank Card application declined with no reason given	Partly helped	–	Only indirectly. The bank sent its reason after the complaint was filed. The Ombudsman then took five months to tell me the matter was outside the Scheme.
29 Apr 2024	IDFC FIRST Bank Currency conversion cost on a card sold as zero forex mark-up	Did not help	–	No. The closure repeated the bank's explanation of network conversion. It took 94 days to say so.
17 Jan 2024	Axis Bank Cashback on a co-branded card not credited for some spends	Did not help	–	No, and I think the decision was right. The exclusion was in the terms.
21 Dec 2023	IDFC FIRST Bank Bank would not share the fee schedule for a discontinued debit card	Helped	–	Yes. The bank produced in two weeks what it had not produced on request.
19 Jun 2023	Equitas Small Finance Bank Partial refund on a disputed card transaction	Did not help	–	No, and the closure was two sentences long. In fairness the dispute was still inside the card network process when I filed.
3 Sep 2022	SBI Cards Credit card query answered only after escalation	Cannot say	–	The one-line closure does not let me say. The issuer did respond once the complaint reached it.
16 Mar 2022	Capfloat Financial Services Closed pay-later loan still showing open on the credit report	Helped	–	Yes. Ten months of nothing from the lender, sixteen days through the Ombudsman.