HDFC Bank serious false accusation – escalate to Nodal Officer or to RBI Ombudsman directly?
TL;DR: 24M, self-employed individual working for international company. Applied for Regalia Gold, fully eligible, but got declined. Escalated to Grievance Redressal, asked for proper reason for rejection citing RBI rules. Bank responded, reasoning given was that cheque-bounce cases were observed in my account, and I can attest that this is false. Seeking advice on escalation/compensation to either Nodal Officer and/or RBI Ombudsman, or next steps to take going forward.
Hello, I recently applied for an HDFC bank credit card (Regalia Gold) by visiting the branch and talking to the credit card representative. I got all the forms done and signed, received a verification call, and waited for some time. Since I am well over the salary range required and am eligible by all means for Regalia Gold, I thought I would get accepted just fine – but it turns out that I got rejected for some generic reason about my business address verification not being possible. I use 44ADA for my taxation as I work remotely for an international company with no entity and hence no office address in India.
Next, I escalated by sending an email to HDFC's grievance redressal email citing RBI rules and asking for a proper reason for rejection and more transparency in the process, and asking for re-evaluation of my original application to get me the card. They took two weeks to investigate this and come back to me with an answer, and I received an email from their preferred banking address where they tell me that my application was declined due to multiple cheque-bounce instances observed in my internal HDFC bank account.
I objectively refuse these allegations and this is false because I haven't even used any of the cheques in my cheque book??? Like this is completely baseless? Cheque bounces quite literally constitute a criminal offence? Can I take these people down for defamation or similar? Or is this a different kind of cheque bounce that is not the same as what I am inferring? I've never had a problem with any of my payments ever and have never engaged in any fraudulent activities. Maybe it's a reporting mistake or some sort of mismatch when fetching my records? Should I now escalate to the Nodal Officer and seek an explanation/compensation? Or is this enough grounds for me to go to the RBI Ombudsman directly? Even if I am interpreting this incorrectly, is it a valid reason for a credit card rejection?
I have a reasonable enough TRV and qualify for both RG and DCBM cards, and I am a Preferred customer (I know it doesn't do anything tbh), but this is how HDFC behaves with its customers nowadays? Just making false statements when I've never even written a cheque using my bank account to anyone in this age of UPI and digital banking.
Please advise. Thank you 🙏🏻