Truth be told, a credit card is a very useful piece of plastic that can be a great help if used right. It can give you free credit of 30-50 days based on your card type and usage.
This can help you earn some extra bucks in your bank account and also earn some reward points.
Today we look at the role of a Rupay UPI credit card that is helping reposition the credit card in the ever so competitive credit card market in India.
If a user is visiting a more established business that has a credit card processing machine at the billing counter then he should not have any problem using a credit or debit card at such an establishment.
However if he visits one of the may street vendors or a business that is not having a credit card processing POS machine then he would have two options one would be the obvious option to settle the bill amount by way of cash payment and the other one would be to do a UPI payment via an app on his phone that is UPI compatible and has a QR code scanner.
Using this app he can scan the QR code of the seller and then the payment app can transfer the amount to be paid from his bank account to the seller's bank account.
This electronic mode of payment via UPI gained traction after the country’s demonetization drive. The drive became an impetus for both the consumers and the sellers to use digital modes of payments.
PayTm emerged as an overnight hero
Back in those days PayTm operated a wallet which a user could fund with a credit, debit card or by way of going to an outlet which offered a wallet top up service.
Once the money was in the wallet the user could send it to anyone or use it to make payments.
The PayTM app and some similar payment services became great tools to help the country move from a cash payment driven economy to a digital payment based economy.
For the credit card users this feature became a great boon as one could use a credit card to fund the account at zero fee without having to pay any fee or having to go to an outlet.
Besides this it meant using the PayTM app and pairing it with your credit card opened up great possibilities to shop with your credit card at businesses that were only accepting cash or app wallet payments.
This meant you could replace cash payments with credit card payments and get a good 30-50 day free credit and earn credit card points which one could exchange for cash or goodies.
At one point PayTm started a loading fee for using a credit card to load their PayTm wallet.
This was a financial deterrent and then came the final blow when the government banned the use of the PayTm wallet.
However one could still use the PayTm app to make UPI payments to the vendors from your bank account.
This brought a steep decline to the number of credit card transactions and usage at establishments which did not have a credit card processing machine at the POS.
Now banks have come out with a novel idea of a RuPay UPI credit card that is being offered by some banks as a digital card.
Here a credit card can be used to make payment to a business that accepts UPI payments.
The only catch here is that a user can link and pay using the RuPay UPI credit card and enjoy the benefits of a credit card once again.
It may be noted that this mode of payment cannot be used to make payments to non business transactions such as to family and friends.
Final thoughts
Such a product if properly promoted can increase the use of credit cards once again.
Main image credited with Bing image designer