Are you holding more than 3 to 4 Credit cards from different Banks or brands and often forget the due dates of the card payments or you are just looking for a simple and hassle-free solution to pay all credit cards bills within due date from a single platform.
In today’s busy life, it is a very common problem that we sometimes unintentionally miss the Credit card payment’s due dates if we hold multiple cards that have different due dates for payments and pay heavy bank charges for miss payments. Not only that, frequent miss payments of the overdue bills may deteriorate our Credit Rating score which may create a problem in sanctioning any loan from any Bank or Finance company in the future. Therefore, if we can able to pay all our Credit Card bills online within due date from a single platform then this kind of problem can be solved.
Today, in this article, we will discuss how to pay the Credit card bill online using UPI & IMPS with instant credit confirmation and some best Credit Card Payment Apps in India. We will also discuss how the interest is calculated on Credit Card so that you can understand how to use a Credit card properly to avoid paying interest and late fees to the Card issuing company.
How credit card interest works in India
Before getting into the solutions on how to avoid paying late fees and interest on the Credit Card bill, let us have some idea about how credit card bill payment Works and how the interest is calculated on credit card.
Credit Card is a kind of personal unsecured loan where the Card issuing Bank gives you a certain credit limit up to which you can utilize for any kind of your personal needs. The credit limit is decided by the Card issuing Bank according to your income criteria.
Credit Card is a very good medium for paying all your online purchases because all the card-issuing banks offer many discounts or cashback options to its customers tieing up with many eCommerce websites in India. You might have noticed that big eCommerce brands in India like Flipkart or Amazon offer huge cashback or No cost EMI on their different products if you pay your online shopping bills using Credit Cards. We also like to use a Credit Card more because it is the most easily available soft Credit to us. But we never try to look the other side this excessive credit card addiction.
These Credit Card issuing Banks and online shopping sites only try to make us spend more by giving more easily available Credit or loan. But this kind of credit line is not free at all, in fact, the most costly credit if we don’t know how to use it. Compulsive use of credit cards without properly calculating our repayment capability may lead us to fall into the credit card debt trap and end up paying huge interest and late payment fees. And these interest and late fees are the main sources of income of the Card issuing Banks. These card issuing Banks don’t make a profit by providing you credit cards or renewal fees but taking interest and late fees from those who do not know how to use a credit card or those who do not know their own repayment capacity. Some of them repay the credit card dues by making some compromise settlement with the Bank and unknowingly deteriorating their Credit Score or CIBIL score to worse. Once a settlement Word is written on your CIBIL or any other Credit Rating score, chances of getting any fresh loan or credit card from any Bank is almost nil for the next few years. Also, your Credit Score will down to below the Bank’s accepted level for sanctioning any loan.
Now, let see how the interest is calculated on Credit Card in India
The interest rate on the credit card is calculated on an APR basis or Annual Percentage Rate basis. For example, we consider the HDFC Bank credit card interest rate. HDFC Bank charges 42% per annum i.e 3.5% per month or daily APR of 0.11%.
All credit card issuing banks provide you pre-approved interest-free period and grace period. For example, the Billing cycle for your Credit Card is from 1st July to 31st July and your Billing Statement Date is 1st August. Your Bank has approved you 20 days of Grace period, then you can enjoy 31+20 =51 days of the interest-free period. Your Due Date of payment will be 21st day August. You have to pay your all outstanding unpaid bills purchased during the billing cycle within the Grace Period i.e before the 21st of August. Otherwise, there will not be any Grace Period if you fail to pay any part of or total unpaid amount of Bill within 21st August and the Bank will start charging you interest from the Billing Statement Date ie from 1st August.
In your Billing Statement, you will find another term Minimum Amount Due. If you pay the Minimum Amount Due, then you can avoid late payment fees, but Bank will charge interest from your Outstanding Amount. No Banks will give you any clear information about How to pay Credit Card Bill properly.
Suppose you have to pay Rs.10000.00 according to the last Billing Statement on 1st August and the minimum amount due is Rs.200 and you fail to pay the both, then on the next billing statement date i.e. on 1st September, you have to pay both late fees+interest of Rs.10000.00 for 31 days.
The interest is calculated on the daily outstanding balance. Considering the above example, if your Bank charges APR of 0.11% per day and late fees of Rs.500.00, then let’s see how your Credit Card Statement look like
| Date | Particulars | Debit | Credit | Balance | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 July | Online Purchase Flipkart | 2000.00 | 0.00 | -2000.00 | |
| 6 July | Online Purchase Amazon | 8000.00 | 0.00 | -10000.00 | |
| 1 August | Billing Statement | 0.00 | 0.00 | -10000.00 | 9 |
| 10 August | Purchase Petrol | 2000.00 | 0.00 | -12000.00 | 21 |
| 21 August | Billing Due Date | 0.00 | 0.00 | -12000.00 | |
| 1 September | Billing Statement (Interest) | 376.20 | 0.00 | -12376.20 | |
| 1 September | Late Fees | 500.00 | 0.00 | -12876.20 | 10 |
| 10 September | Online Credit | 0.00 | 12876.20 | 0.00 | |
| 1 October | Billing Statement (Residue Interest) | 141.64 | 0.00 | -141.64 | |
| 1 October | Late Fess | 500.00 | 0.00 | -641.60 |
In the above example, interest is calculated on a daily of outstanding i.e. 10000×0.11%x9+12000×0.11%x21= 376.20.
Again, if you credit all the dues including interest and late fees on the next month of 10th, the part period of interest and late fees will be charged on the next of Billing Date, this part period of interest is called residue interest.
I hope you have got some idea about how Credit Card interest works in India.
Now, lets back to the main topic, best methods to pay credit card online from a single place or App and instant credit to your credit card account.
Best way to pay off multiple credit cards in India
Different Banks have their own bill payment section to pay Credit Card bills online, but basic methods of payments for all the Banks are the same. If you pay your every credit card bills from the Bank’s individual websites, then the process gets longer and you may also forget to pay the bill of any of your cards, which results in unnecessary Bank charges or interest.
If you pay your Credit Card bill online from Bank’s official websites, then the amount will be reflected on your Credit Card Account on T+2 days excluding holidays, i.e. if you pay Credit Card bill today, then after 24 to 48 hours, the amount will be credited to your account.
Here, I will discuss some best ways to pay off multiple credit cards in India from a single place and also show some tricks to paying off credit card dues instantly to your card accounts.
Let’s start with the best Credit Card Bill Payments Apps in India
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Pay Credit Card dues with Credit Card Bill Payment Apps in India
Payment through mobile is the most convenient option for everyone because we use it all the time in a day and access to the desktop is possible every time.
These are the best Credit Card bill Payments Apps in India right now you can install on your mobile
- CRED
- Paytm
- PhonePe
- Mobikwik
- Google Pay
- Mobile Banking Apps
1. CRED
With some unique rewarding system for your each online Credit card bill payment makes this App one of the most popular Credit card bill payment app in India. This App provides you with rewards points named CRED Coin for your Credit Card payment through this App and most importantly the App does not take any charges for the payment processing.
Founded by Kunal Shah, the person behinds the launch of popular Freecharge App which is one of the oldest mobile recharging startups in India. Cred is a member-only app and you can only join if you have CRIF/Experian score more than 700. The idea seems innovative though CRIF or Experian score is still not so widely used by most of the Fintech firms. It calculates the Credit Score only from the mobile number you provide at the time of signing up on the app and it only detects the Credit cards which have the same mobile number linked with the card. Therefore the chances of Credit Score variation are there. You have to manually add the cards which do not have the same mobile number.
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CRED app will provide you the equal number of CRED Coins that you have paid using the App. The accumulated Cred Coins can be used for several in-app merchants offers.
The App also provides you CRED Protect, if you provide the app to access your mail inbox which is linked to your Cards. The app will automatically detect the Due dates of all the Credit Cards and reminds you well ahead of due dates to pay your Credit Card bills. You have the option to pay credit card bill through UPI, Debit Card or Net Banking from all Indian Banks.
The most important part of the CRED App is that your Credit card payment will instantly reflect in Your Credit card Account which is otherwise not possible if you pay from the Banks Official websites or from any other bill payments method. The App uses UPI or IMPS method (wherever applicable) to credit your payment on a real-time basis and any time in a day. You can also do it yourself without the help of the CRED App or other Bill Payments App, which I will discuss later in this article.
Overall, CRED is a very smooth, User-friendly and safe Credit Card Bill Payments App in India with more than 4.6 scores both in Android and iOS App store.
Download the CRED App.
2. Paytm
India’s number one mobile provider Paytm has also the option to Pay all types of Credit Card Bill from a single platform. You can find the credit card section after login into your Paytm App. You can pay Visa, Rupay, Mastercard, Amex, and DinnersClub credit card from Paytm App without any extra charges. The payment will be credited to your account after T+2 days.
Download Paytm App.
3. PhonePe
With more than 50 percent market share in India’s UPI transaction, PhonePe has also the option to pay credit card bills online. You can pay Visa, Mastercard, Rupay, DinnersClub or Amex credit card bill from this single App platform without any transaction cost. Though the payment will reflect on your Credit Card account after 48 hours excluding holidays.
Download the PhonePe App for Android & iOS.
4. Mobikwik
Popular Mobile wallet cum UPI payments App in India, Mobikwik App has also the option to pay credit cards online. You can find the credit card payment section after login into the Mobikwik App. The payment features are more or less the same with Paytm or PhonePe app as discussed above. You can pay all types of credit card ie Amex, Rupay, DinnersClub and Visa from this single app. The amount will reflect on your Credit Card account after T+2 days.
Download the Mobikwik Payment App for Android & iOS.
5. Google Pay
Google Pay is currently the number one UPI Payment App in India with its smooth and unique interface. You can use Google Pay to pay your bill using its UPI payment option in real-time. Just go to New Payment through UPI ID and put the VPA id of your Credit card account and select OK.
Download Google Pay App
6. Mobile Banking Apps
In our previous article, I have already discussed some best mobile apps in India. You can also use your banking app to pay your credit card bill online. Most of the good mobile banking apps in India have a Visa Credit Card bill payment option. If you have one or more Visa Credit card, then can add the card numbers on Visa Credit Card bill payment section and make the payment easily and anytime without any hassle. You can also make a schedule to process the payment on any particular day.
The other option is UPI and IMPS, where you can settle the money instantly to your Credit Card Account. You can pay your Credit Card bill online using your mobile banking apps. The different bank uses a different VPA for UPI payments which I will discuss next.
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Pay Credit Card online using UPI & IMPS payment method
UPI (Unified Payment Interface) and IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) are the most innovative inter-bank payment system where you can transfer money between two different Bank’s accounts on a realtime basis. I have already written a detailed article on the UPI Payment system in India, you can read it from here.
The settlement period of NEFT/RTGS is a bit more than IMPS, although both the process are the same. You can transfer up to Rs.1.00 Lacs using UPI and Rs.2.00 Lacs using IMPS in a day, which is sufficient for 99 percent of Credit cardholders.
Different Bank uses different VPA format for UPI money transfer. You can use this method for almost all popular Indian Bank’s credit cards, except a few, where you can use the IMPS method for instant Credit Card Payment. The most important thing is that you can pay your credit card bill on Sunday or Banking holiday. Popular Credit Card payment App, CRED uses the same process for payment processing at the backend. Therefore, you can use your Bank’s Mobile Banking App or your favorite UPI payment App as an alternative of CRED.
Now let’s see what are the UPI VPA id and Bank Details of Popular credit card issuers in India for online fund transfer using IMPS or NEFT method
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Pay ICICI Bank Credit Card
| Particulars | Details |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | ccpay.XXXXXXXX@icici (Put your 16 digit Credit Card Number, For Amex Card, add 0 before Card Number) |
| Payee Name | Your Name |
| Payee Account No | Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | ICICI Bank Ltd. |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | ICIC0000103 |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
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Pay Axis Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Name As on your Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | Your 16 Digit Card Number |
| Bank Name | Axis Bank Limited |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | UTIB0000400 |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
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Pay HDFC Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Your Name |
| Payee Account No | Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | HDFC Bank Ltd. |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | HDFC0000128 |
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Pay CITI Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Name as shown your CITI Bank Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | Citibank N.A |
| Payee Account Type | Select Any Account Type |
| IFSC Code | CITI0000003 |
| Bank Address | Chennai |
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Pay SBI Credit Card
| Particulars | Details |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Sbicard.XXXXXXXXX@sbi (Put your 16 digit card number) |
| Payee Name | Name as shown your SBI Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | 16 Digit SBI Card Number |
| Bank Name | SBI CREDIT CARD - NEFT |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | SBIN00CARDS |
| Bank Address | PAYMENT SYSTEMS GROUP, STATE BANK GITC, CBD BELAPUR, NAVI MUMBAI |
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Pay American Express Credit Card
| Particulars | Details |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | AEBC37XXXXXX@SC (Your 15 Digit Card Number beginning with 37) |
| Payee Name | American Express |
| Payee Account No | 37XXXXXXXXXXXXX ( your complete 15 digit card number beginning with 37) |
| Bank Name | Standard Chartered Bank |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | SCBL0036020 |
| Bank Address | New Delhi |
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Pay RBL Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Name as on your RBL Bank Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | 16-digit Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | RBL Bank |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | RATN0CRCARD |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
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Pay HSBC Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Name as on your HSBC Bank Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | 16-digit Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | HSBC Bank |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | HSBC0400002 |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
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Pay Kotak Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | 4166xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Customer Name |
| Payee Account No | 4166xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Provide your correct 16-digit Kotak Credit Card Number) |
| Bank Name | Kotak Mahindra Bank |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | KKBK0000958 |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
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Pay Yes Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Name as on your Yes Bank Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | 16-digit Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | Yes Bank |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | YESB0CMSNOC |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
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Pay Standard Chartered Bank Credit Card
| Details | Particulars |
|---|---|
| UPI VPA | Not Available |
| Payee Name | Name as on your SC Bank Credit Card |
| Payee Account No | 16-digit Credit Card number |
| Bank Name | Standard Chartered Bank |
| Payee Account Type | Current |
| IFSC Code | SCBL0036001 |
| Bank Address | Mumbai |
Add IFSC code and Account Number as third party transfer beneficiary on your Mobile Banking App where the VPA id for UPI payment is not available. You can transfer funds instantly using the IMPS money transfer method after adding the third party beneficiary.
As per the latest RBI guidelines, charges on NEFT, RTGS, IMPS or UPI money transfer have been withdrawn after 1st July 2019.
Final Word
There are numerous methods by which you can pay your Credit Card bills in India. I have mentioned above the best & most convenient method by which you can pay credit card bills online if you have multiple credits cards. The payment processing will take place on a real-time basis, no matter there is any banking holiday or Sunday and all can be done using your smartphone.
If you have any other recommendations or if I have skipped anything, then don’t hesitate to share your comments below.
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Meanwhile, You may also like to read…
- How to eKYC for mutual fund online at your Home
- Best UPI Payments App in India
- Best Banks in India to open Account
Thanks for your work. This summer I will be in India on a business trip. This is important information for me.
I tried both citibank and hdfc bank credit card payments using google pay but they both do not work. The amount gets debited and then gets credited immediately showing error after submiting the upi pin.
You can not pay Citibank and HDFC bank credit card using UPI, you have to pay by imps method, the ac no and ifsc code I have already mentioned in the article. Check Citibank and Hdfc bank details.