PhonePe partners with Visa, allows you to pay credit card bills on the app

Flipkart-owned payments platform PhonePe has entered into a strategic partnership with payment network Visa to enable credit card bill payments on its app. As part of this partnership, customers now have the option to pay their Visa credit card bills on PhonePe. Using the PhonePe app, customers can pay credit card bills using multiple bank accounts at no additional charges.

In an interview last year, PhonePe founders had hinted about the plan to YourStory. [Read full interview here.]

This is part of PhonePe’s ‘payment container’ or in-app strategy, which will allow users to pay through their preferred method of payment within the app while adding services like ticketing and other services on the app.

PhonePe, earlier this month, had announced a partnership with Freecharge which will allow users to pay through Freecharge wallets on the PhonePe app. The company has a similar partnership with JioMoney.

The company has also introduced bus ticketing on its platform through a partnership with redBus, while aggressively looking at other partnerships in the groceries, entertainment, and food delivery space.

Speaking on this partnership with Visa, Hemant Gala, Head of Payments at PhonePe, said,

“Through this partnership, we aim at making the process of credit card bill payments seamless and hassle-free for our users. This is the first time in India that a digital payments app has enabled the option of credit card bill payments, and we believe this is an important step in PhonePe’s vision to become a one-stop destination for all digital payments needs of customers. We are very excited to begin this new chapter with Visa and are open to working with more such partners who share our vision.”

Shailesh Paul, Head Merchant Sales and Solutions, India and South Asia at Visa, said,

“While credit cards are synonymous with digital payments, cardholders often end up using offline means for repayment of their credit card bills. This is in part due to limited choices of card repayment methods available to them. The PhonePe solution offers credit cardholders the convenience and flexibility to pay their card bills directly through their mobile phones and other devices. This new service will help Visa cardholders manage their credit card bill payments more efficiently and on the go.”

This partnership is also a step towards seamlessly allowing users to shop at offline and online stores which are in partnership with PhonePe. This also includes recharging, paying all their utility bills.

In a recent interview, Diana Layfield, VP, Product Management, Google confirmed to YourStory that their Indian payments offering Tez will be introducing credit card payments. She said, 

"We absolutely believe in UPI; it is extremely important for us to lead with. Having said that, we will bring credit card payments and even wallet payments."

At present, PhonePe claims to have over 65 million installs. Last month, the company had claimed it processed over one million transactions, worth over Rs 100 crore, daily in the month of November.

This takes the total volume of transactions processed on the PhonePe platform in November to 33 million. The company had then claimed it processed Rs 40,000 crore in payments within 14 months of its launch.

PhonePe's network consisted of over 60,000 online and offline merchants when last reported.