(MENAFN- Live Mint) online bill aggregators such as SBI Unipay offer a common platform for paying all bills; attractive reward points are an added incentive for users to transact on these portals.
Users of SBI Unipay, the online bill payment aggregator service of the country's top bank SBI, have not been able to pay their credit card bills on the portal since July 18 evening. The portal has removed all options for paying bills (except SBI internet banking). Debit card was the latest option that was removed by SBI Unipay, users complained on social media platforms.
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“They have removed all options. Now only SBI internet banking is available. Will they bring back the debit card option?” a user asked on Reddit , a social news aggregator.
“SBI Unipay Website TATA Bye Bye. Debit Card payment option gone. Was fine till 3 PM today. Disclaimer: Could be a technical glitch also,” a user posted on X (formerly Twitter).
“Was working till 7:15 pm actually. I guess it will come back after fixing some bugs,” another user posted on X.
An email questionnaire sent to SBI about what led the aggregator to remove all but the bank's netbanking option for transactions did not elicit any response at the time of filing this report. This is not the first time 'SBI Unipay' has faced user complaints on transaction-related issues.
In March this year, users complained that they received 'transaction failed' messages on the platform. And much to their dismay, they found that money was deducted from their savings accounts, which was not credited to their credit card accounts. Some users faced transaction-related problems earlier this month.
A bill payment aggregator like SBI Unipay acts as an intermediary between customers and multiple billers that include utility services, telecom companies, local bodies that levy taxes and insurance firms. Such aggregators offer the benefit of paying all bills on a common platform.
Further, they also provide flexible payment options, due date reminders for bill payments and auto payment features. They allow users to pay their bills using net banking, credit cards, debit cards, UPI (Unified Payments Interface), prepaid cards and mobile wallets. Amazon Pay India, Google Pay, SBI Unipay, BillDesk, Mobikwik, CRED and Freecharge are the main online bill aggregators.
Also Read | Will UPI cash deposit facility render debit cards irrelevant?
Customers prefer online bill aggregators as, apart from the ease of payments, they also offer attractive reward points and credit miles. In fact, many users avail the services of bill aggregators such as SBI Unipay to earn these reward points.
“DC (Debit Card) option is gone which hurts more than the glitch being fixed. SBI Unipay is probably the only bill payment provider with all banks which has 4900 mcc (gives uncapped rewards on several dc's,” a user posted on X.
MCC refers to merchant category code, the four-digit number used by the issuer of the credit card to categorise purchases completed using a particular code. MCC 4900 is the code for electric, gas, sanitary and water utilities and similar services.
“It was awesome, earned maybe a lakh or so miles using this and the other one which still is letting you pay via cc (credit card). Can't post because it may close as well,” a user said on Reddit .
“Did it charge you anything? Was it considered a utility payment? Also seems like you can't pay using DC for now? I have a large HDFC bill payment next week and was considering SBI Unipay,” another Reddit user posted in response.
SBI Unipay has had several technical glitches in the past. The portal was even letting users pay credit card bills through another credit card, a user pointed out. The bill aggregator had the direct 'credit card' payment option, the UPI option and the debit card option on its platform.
Allirajan M is a journalist with over two decades of experience. He has worked with several leading media organisations in the country and has been writing on mutual funds for nearly 16 years.
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