Pay your credit card bills via UPI

TL;DR:

Find the UPI VPA that deposits money directly into your card, transfer money to it. Goes without saying, always test the payment with a small amount, see that it reflects in the card and only then save the VPA for future use.

The below is only relevant if your credit card app does not have a payment feature or is difficult to use

I will provide examples for SBI and ICICI, but you should be able to find similar ways for your bank.

ICICI ( Official instructions - Here )

VPA to Transfer Money to

ccpay.[10-digit registered mobile number][last 4-digit of credit card number]@icici

Example:

ccpay.99999999991234@icici

You should see your bank registered name when you add this VPA, Do not proceed if you don’t see your name. Check the VPA Format and retry.

SBI ( Official instructions - Here )

Pre-requisite : You need the BHIM SBI Pay app (SBI has put this artificial restriction for safety reasons I assume)

VPA to Transfer Money to

Sbicard.[your 16-digit card number]@SBI

Example:

Sbicard.4726420123456789@SBI

you should see receiver name - “SBI Cards Payment services…”, Do not proceed if you don’t see this. Check the VPA Format and retry.

Additional context - Bharat Connect (BBPS)

From what I know, the above methods are what apps like CRED use to pay your bill but they do it via BBPS. Where BBPS know the VPA based on your bank. I might be wrong. But knowing this context is essential because most other payment apps are wrappers over BBPS and only add friction to the otherwise straightforward process!

Context of why I switched from apps like CRED

CRED was an amazing app, I used to love it, used it for everything from card payments, bills, UPI and even shopping!

But like all major apps, it soon got overwhelming, confusing and difficult to navigate. There was this weird push to play games, coupons, a laundry list of things that made you spend time on the app. These too were fine but the last straw was when they revamped or actually broke the customer support system. Out of nowhere with no communication or even a little blurb they removed their entire old structure and replaced it with a chatbot that barely worked. I could rant for a while longer but I couldn’t get the help I needed and felt helpless. I tend to completely cut off a service when it makes me feel helpless and that I did. There is so much more that happened, including me hiring a lawyer but that is for later.

So then the search began for a replacement and I faced the truth, the other apps pale in comparison to the ease and number of features I had in CRED. But I anyway went ahead, tried alternatives and ended up deleting my accounts in all of them.

in the end, I got to thinking, do I really need a dedicated app to pay credit card bills? Sure I got reminders and summary and stuff but remember that CRED takes access to your ENTIRE email account. they claim a lot of safety stuff but who really knows what happens, there is no real accountability to what they access in your emails.

I could just use my bank’s app but for a reason I do not understand, many of them require you to also have a savings account with them to pay the bill else you need to rely on third party tools.