Microsoft Extends Free Office 365 Subscription to April 2022 Due to RBI Mandate for Recurring Payments

When RBI’s new auto-debit rules went into effect on October 1, 2021 , many people had trouble renewing their subscriptions, including OTT apps like Netflix , Amazon Prime, and YouTube Premium . Along with this, people are having trouble renewing subscriptions for vital tools like Microsoft Office 365.

Looking at the situation, Microsoft has decided to renew their Office 365 subscription free of charge for their customers in India. Yes, you read it right. If you subscribe to Office 365, your subscription will be valid until April 1, 2022, and it doesn’t matter if your subscription expired earlier. Microsoft reportedly sent out an email to Office 365 subscribers in India informing them of the subscription renewal and the reasons behind it.

Microsoft India is extending the Microsoft 365 subscription until April 1, 2022, for FREE to everyone. Thanks, @MicrosoftIndia!

This is in the wake of the new @RBI mandate on recurring payments. #Microsoft365 pic.twitter.com/90yWTa1GXY

October 12, 2021

An email from Microsoft states: “The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently added new requirements for processing recurring transactions through the RBI e-Mandate to improve the security and reliability of these transactions. At Microsoft, we’re updating our payment systems to ensure we can make recurring payments in line with these requirements. In the meantime, to avoid interrupting your subscription, we’ve extended your Microsoft 365 subscription until at least April 1, 2022 at no additional cost, so you don’t have to worry about recurring payments during that time. Thank you for subscribing to Microsoft 365.”

Microsoft Office 365 is widely used by professionals and corporations in India and around the world, primarily because of its cloud-based features and easy sharing capabilities along with the rich set of tools it provides. The Office 365 family plan is quite popular at $99.99 per year. The family plan allows you to use Office 365 and five other members, plus a total of 6 TB of storage. This plan is much more economical than the Personal plan, which costs $69.99 and provides 1TB of storage for a year.