RuPay credit card on UPI: what earns, what is charged and how to judge the best RuPay card

What can I pay with a RuPay credit card on UPI?

Only merchants. SBI Card, ICICI, Axis, Kotak and RBL all limit the facility to person-to-merchant payments. You cannot send money to a person, withdraw cash or receive money on the card.

The documents name the same barred list: person-to-person (P2P), person-to-person-merchant (P2PM), digital account opening, lending platforms, cash withdrawal at a merchant or ATM, e-RUPI, IPOs, foreign inward remittances and mutual funds. SBI Card and RBL also bar merchant EMI on UPI. Only RuPay cards link, as SBI Card, Kotak and ICICI each say.

P2PM matters at small stalls. NPCI's FAQ of 15 September 2026 describes these as vendors who take up to Rs 1 lakh a month through a UPI QR into a personal bank account, so the card can fail at a vendor who takes savings account UPI without trouble. Cash costs are in our cash withdrawal guide.

How much can I pay in a day, and why will my card not link?

The limit is the lower of your available credit and the UPI limit, and banks state that limit differently. SBI Card says Rs 5 lakh a day, or Rs 1 lakh at small offline merchants, and Kotak says Rs 1 lakh a day, or Rs 2 lakh in some special cases. A card will not link if it breaks a stated rule, such as a UPI mobile number that differs from the one on the card.

Both hold you to Rs 5,000 in the first 24 hours. SBI Card counts those 24 hours from the first transaction, and Kotak from linking. Neither sets a limit on the number of payments.

SBI Card and ICICI both state the mobile number rule. Kotak says customers with more than one Customer Relationship Number cannot link for now, and that a new card takes 24 hours to appear. Add-on cards are out at Kotak, and SBI Card limits the facility to primary cardholders. A renewed or replaced card must be linked again.

Do I pay a fee for using a credit card on UPI?

Usually not for the payment itself: SBI Card and Kotak both state no charge for linking or transacting, and NPCI's FAQ says UPI apps shall not charge a platform fee on UPI payments. But ICICI, Axis and RBL all say the fees, finance charges, surcharges and mark-ups on card spends apply on UPI too. The SBI Card and Kotak lines are about the UPI route, and neither FAQ says card-level fees fall away: SBI Card's MITC lists Rs 199 plus taxes on rent payments and, once utility payments pass Rs 50,000 a billing cycle, 1% on the whole utility total (Rs 640 on Rs 64,000), and Kotak's lists, on most cards, 1% plus GST on rent through merchant code 6513 and 1% on wallet loads above Rs 10,000 a statement cycle.

Axis Bank adds a 1% surcharge plus taxes on rent paid through merchant code 6513, including on UPI, which our rent guide covers. Axis Kwik's page also lists 1% on utilities from Rs 25,000, wallet loads from Rs 10,000 and fuel from Rs 50,000 a statement cycle. SBI Card says fuel surcharge applies on UPI and is not reversed, while Axis and ICICI follow the card's own fuel terms. See the fuel surcharge guide.

IDFC FIRST's Digital RuPay page lists a joining fee of Rs 199 plus GST and an annual fee of Rs 199 plus GST from the second year for the UPI card linked to cards such as Millennia and WOW. That is Rs 234.82 a year with GST at 18%. The page says neither fee applies to the UPI card issued with WOW! Black, Gaj: or Business Multiplier.

Do merchants pay a charge, and can they pass it to me?

Merchants will pay a new NPCI charge on direct bank account UPI payments, but NPCI's FAQ of 15 September 2026 does not apply that charge to credit cards on UPI, which it says follow standard credit card guidelines. The FAQ gives no rate for credit cards on UPI. It also does not say whether a charge on such a payment can be passed to you.

That new charge is 0.4% on merchant payments above Rs 2,000, capped at Rs 300 per transaction from Rs 75,000. Railways, telecom, insurance, fuel and some other categories pay a flat Rs 5 above Rs 2,000, capital markets 0.02%, and P2PM vendors nil. The FAQ gave a start date of 15 October 2026, but NPCI's notice of 13 October 2026 moved it to immediately after Diwali, on a date to be notified. We have not seen that date. NPCI says standard credit card charges typically run from 1.5% to 2.5%.

NPCI's line that merchants cannot pass the charge to buyers sits in that account-payment context. If a shop or site adds a fee, the RBI's card directions say any convenience fee must be shown to you before the transaction. Ask your bank, or use the route in our disputes guide.

Which cards still earn rewards on UPI through GPay or PhonePe?

Most RuPay cards we read earn on UPI, but often at a lower rate or under a cap. SBI Card, ICICI and Kotak say UPI spends earn under the card's own rewards structure, without tying it to one app. Some cards do tie the rate to an app or a payment size, as the table shows.

Read at each bank's own page or terms on 31 October 2026. A bank not listed is one we did not read for this rule. Axis Bank's MITC sets no general UPI reward rule, so each Axis card's own page decides. HDFC's MITC also has a 500 point line that names no card, straight after its Tata Neu terms. Do not read it as a bank-wide cap: the UPI RuPay terms allow 500 in each tier. Check your own card's terms.

What would Rs 10,000 a month on UPI earn and cost?

On Rs 10,000 at ordinary merchants outside any bonus category or exclusion, the stated rates earn Rs 25 on HDFC UPI RuPay's 1% tier, Rs 30 in rewards on Kotak UPI RuPay, and Rs 37.50 or about Rs 12.50 on IDFC FIRST depending on payment size. Axis Kwik earns 100 EDGE points on one payment and none on 20 payments of Rs 500. Leaving the Rs 10,000 unpaid for a month on an ICICI card costs Rs 442.50 with GST at its standard 3.75% a month, or Rs 147.50 at the 1.25% its MITC says a rate can go as low as.

An example. On the HDFC UPI RuPay, 1% of Rs 10,000 is 100 CashPoints, worth Rs 25 at HDFC's Rs 0.25 per CashPoint. If all of it were groceries at 3%, that is 300 CashPoints, or Rs 75. Now leave the Rs 10,000 unpaid on an ICICI card for one month. Interest at ICICI's standard 3.75% is Rs 375, GST at 18% adds Rs 67.50, and the total is Rs 442.50. That is interest for one month only. ICICI's MITC runs interest from the transaction date, so the real period is often longer, and missing the minimum due adds a late charge of Rs 750 plus GST at this balance, or Rs 885. One month of interest at that rate wipes out almost six months of the Rs 75 reward.

Arithmetic ours, from each bank's stated rate. Rounding of part-points is not always stated, so treat 'about' figures as approximate. Excludes welcome offers.

Which spends earn nothing even on a card that rewards UPI?

The card's normal exclusions still apply on UPI. Kotak's UPI RuPay earns nothing on rent, fuel, railway, wallet loads, EMI, education, balance transfer, insurance, government and online skill-based gaming. HDFC's UPI RuPay excludes fuel, insurance, education, government, rent, wallet and voucher purchases, cash advances and all EMI.

Banks sort these by merchant category code, so the shop's code decides, not what you bought. HDFC's terms say that if a merchant's code is not in its 3% set-up, the payment does not qualify for 3%. The table below prints our catalogue's exclusions by bank. Check them on your own card in My Cards, and see rewards on insurance, tax, education and utilities.

400 of 562 open cards, from 34 banks. 162 open cards have no figure here because we did not find one. Rows marked Not confirmed are figures we could not check against the issuer document, so check with the bank.

Which is the best RuPay credit card for UPI?

We do not rank cards, because the answer turns on your payment sizes, merchants and app. Take your own monthly UPI spend, apply the card's rate and cap, multiply by the bank's stated point value, and subtract the annual fee and any UPI activation fee.

Are most of your payments under Rs 2,000? Then the small-payment rules at Axis Kwik, RBL and IDFC FIRST decide it. Does the rate need one app, as at Utkarsh's SuperCard? Is there a monthly cap you would reach? At 3%, HDFC UPI RuPay's 500 CashPoints run out at about Rs 16,667 of spend in that tier.

Kotak UPI RuPay has no joining or annual fee, while HDFC UPI RuPay charges Rs 99 plus taxes and waives the renewal fee from the second year on Rs 25,000 of spend the year before. HDFC issues it only as an additional card on a primary HDFC card. Browse RuPay credit cards, lifetime free RuPay cards or find a card by your own filters.