The advent of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has rendered our wallets obsolete. With QR codes available everywhere, from tea stalls to local vendors, the need to carry physical wallets has significantly diminished. However, since UPI is linked to our bank accounts, it is useful as long as we have funds lying in our bank accounts. Fortunately, there is now a solution as credit cards can also be linked to UPI. This is because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) have allowed RuPay credit cards to be linked to UPI. However, the fact that these credit cards have a mere 3 per cent market share indicates that a majority of cardholders do not possess one. Consequently, you need to first acquire a RuPay card to access credit on UPI. RuPay is a product of NPCI, the umbrella organisation that powers retail payments in the country.
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How to use a credit card through UPI?
You need to apply for a RuPay credit card with a bank that offers this feature on UPI. The user must then manually link the physical card with a third-party application (TPAP) that supports credit on UPI to initiate transactions.
For example, BoB Financial Solutions (BFSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank of Baroda (BoB), recently announced that its credit card customers can use their RuPay credit cards on UPI with BHIM and other UPI-enabled Apps. This would help BoB RuPay credit card holders to transact across all merchant outlets with QR codes and POS devices in the country using UPI.
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Sanjiv Chadha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, BoB, says, “UPI has revolutionised payments in the country and BoB Financial is pleased to partner NPCI in enabling credit card transactions on UPI on the Bank of Baroda RuPay credit cards. Credit card on UPI gives our customers access to the ease and convenience of transacting on UPI while they continue to enjoy the benefits of a credit card. And they do not even have to carry the card with them. With this launch, we expect a significant rise in the use cases for making payments via credit cards, resulting in our cardholders engaging much more with their Bank of Baroda RuPay credit card.”
You can also apply for a RuPay card through a fintech company like Kiwi, the first Indian app to offer
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“Credit on UPI” by partnering with banks to issue RuPay Cards. “It helps one apply for a RuPay credit on the app itself. An individual can download the app and go through a simple and intuitive onboarding process that is a completely digital journey. After the KYC and eligibility approval from the bank, the user would get the virtual UPI-enabled credit card within minutes. This is instantly linked to their UPI ID and the user can avail the feature of making merchant payments through their credit card, on UPI,” said Mohit Bedi, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, Kiwi.
PhonePe recently announced that it has become the first digital payments app to successfully enable the linkage of 200,000 RuPay credit cards to UPI. In addition, PhonePe has also processed total payment value (TPV) of Rs 150 crore via RuPay Credit on UPI.
