With the Reserve Bank of India mandating Additional Factor of Authentication (AFA) from April 1, auto payments for various services, including recharges and utility bills, will no longer be possible.
However, banks and payment gateways requesting to grant more time to implement RBI guidelines on automatic recurring payments.
On December 4 last year, the RBI directed banks, along with RRBs, NBFCs and payment gateways, to suspend payments using cards, prepaid payment methods and UPIs that were not subject to AFA after March 31.
The RBI has taken this step to strengthen the security and protection of card transactions. As some companies are not ready to follow this, it is likely to affect consumer bills, recharges, recurring payments like DTH and OTT.
As per RBI, transactions above Rs 5,000 will require an additional OTP. A notice will be sent to customers 5 days before an automated payment is scheduled. Only when the customer approves it, the transaction will go ahead. If banks refuse automatic payments, the customers should make manual transactions to complete their payments.