What Changed · Part 1 · Money rules · 7 min read · September 2026

1 October 2026: what actually changes for your money — and what the forwards got wrong

In the last week of every month the same forward starts doing the rounds: ten rules changing from the 1st. Most of its items took effect months ago, some belong to next month, and a few were never rules at all. This page is shorter, because it keeps only what could be checked against the document that made the change — and it says plainly who each one touches.

Big fixed deposits get new pricing rules. Yours doesn't change.

RBI's amended directions on deposit interest rates, issued on 30 July, take effect on 1 October across commercial banks, small finance banks, regional rural banks, payments banks, local area banks and urban co-operative banks. The change is about bulk deposits — at most commercial banks and small finance banks, a single term deposit of ₹3 crore or more. Banks may now price those differently depending on how quickly such money is expected to leave under stress, and they must publish their bulk-deposit rates on their website by 10 a.m. every business day, with ten minutes' grace.

For everyone else, the useful part is the rule that stays: a bank must pay the same rate at every branch, to every customer, for the same amount deposited on the same date, and it must disclose its rates in advance. If your FD is a few lakh, 1 October changes nothing — not your rate, not the contracted rate on a deposit you already hold, not the senior-citizen extra. A forward promising "new FD rates from 1 October" is describing a rule written for crore-sized deposits.

Buying a flat from an NRI: no TAN needed from 1 October

When the seller of a property is a non-resident, the buyer has to deduct TDS before paying — on the full price, with no ₹50 lakh threshold, and at the rate that applies to the seller's capital gain rather than the flat 1% used for resident sellers, unless the seller produces a lower-deduction certificate. Until now, that also meant the buyer had to apply for a TAN — the tax account number businesses use — just to make one payment.

This year's Finance Act removed that step. From 1 October, a resident individual or HUF buying immovable property from a non-resident can deduct and deposit this TDS using their own PAN. Payments made up to 30 September still go through the TAN route. The tax itself does not change — same deduction, same rates, same obligation. Only the paperwork gets shorter.

Two notes from the loan desk. First, check on the income-tax portal that the PAN-based option for this payment is actually live before you rely on it; a law taking effect and a portal form being ready are not always the same day. Second, if the purchase is funded by a home loan, plan the payment split with your lender well before the disbursement date. The TDS has to come out of what the seller receives, so the payment to the seller cannot simply be the full price.

Paying a foreign website by card: a new check

RBI's rules on how digital payments are authenticated took effect in April 2026, but they carried one deadline for later. By 1 October, card issuers must be able to verify a one-off online card payment to an overseas merchant when that merchant or its bank asks for extra authentication, and they must run risk-based checks on cross-border online card payments in general. Recurring payments such as subscriptions are treated as lower-risk.

In practice, some international online payments — a software licence, a domain renewal, a course, an app bought on a foreign site — may now ask you to approve the payment with an OTP or inside your bank's app. It does not mean every foreign payment will demand an OTP. If one fails, check first that online international use is switched on for your card in your bank's app; many cards keep it off until you turn it on.

What does not change on 1 October

UPI does not start charging you. On 15 September, NPCI announced a merchant discount rate of 0.4% on specified person-to-merchant UPI payments above ₹2,000, capped at ₹300 a transaction — starting on 15 October, not the 1st, and charged to the merchant. Person-to-person transfers and merchant payments of ₹2,000 or less stay free, and small merchants in the P2PM category — typically a shop collecting UPI into a personal account — stay at zero MDR while their UPI receipts remain within ₹1 lakh a month. If a shop starts adding a "UPI charge" to a big bill, that is the shop passing on its own fee; the framework does not charge you.

Windows 10 does not lose its security updates this October. Microsoft extended its consumer Extended Security Updates by a year: enrolled PCs now get security fixes until 12 October 2027, and existing enrolments roll over automatically. Plenty of pages still quote 13 October 2026. If a festive-sale advertisement uses that date to sell you a laptop, the deadline it names has moved. And if the machine cannot run Windows 11 and is used only for browsing and banking, a lightweight Linux desktop is a free option worth trying before you buy anything.

Android's new install checks do not reach India this year. From 30 September, certified Android phones in Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand will require apps from participating stores to come from developers who have verified their identity with Google; the global rollout follows in 2027. In India, nothing changes on 30 September. The scam this is aimed at is very much here, though: an APK file sent on WhatsApp posing as a bank's KYC update, a traffic challan or a loan offer. No bank sends its app as a file. Install banking apps from the store, or not at all.

Cylinder prices move at the start of every month. Oil marketing companies announce LPG price revisions around the 1st. That is a routine price review, not a new rule, however it is headlined.

Still a draft: RBI's procedure for mule-account holds

RBI's proposed procedure for temporary debit holds on suspected mule accounts — a bank's own hold on flagged transactions of ₹1,000 or more, capped at 60 days without a police instruction — is open for comment until 2 October and proposed to apply from 1 April 2027. It does not cover holds ordered through the cybercrime portal after a complaint. What the draft changes, and the route that works today if your account is frozen.

Dates to keep

Written at the MoneyClarityTech desk — by a working retail-credit professional in Indian banking who reads loan files, credit reports and bank statements every working day. Patterns from hundreds of real cases; every identifying detail removed. More about MoneyClarityTech →