On the 25th of most months I’d send the same sheepish message: “Can I borrow 2k till salary?” I wasn’t overspending on big things; it was the small, constant ones—chai after a walk, paracetamol from the chemist, tomatoes from the cart downstairs. I paid almost everything via UPI from my savings account, so the outflow felt invisible until it didn’t.
A friend said, “You already use a credit card—try it through Kiwi.” Kiwi provides a RuPay Credit Card that you can link to UPI in the Kiwi app and use for transactions. I wasn’t new to credit cards, so Kiwi wasn’t my first. But once I linked the card in Kiwi to my UPI app, every familiar QR around my neighbourhood could route through an UPI Credit Card—no POS machine, no plastic, just scan and go.
Week one looked the same on the surface. I still bought idlis at the corner joint, bread and eggs at the dairy, a comb at the salon, and a last-minute gift at a local store. That evening was different: those spends lived on a single billing cycle instead of nibbling at my savings. In my Kiwi view, they lined up cleanly—same routine, clearer picture.
By week two, I noticed the real cashback against eligible everyday offline UPI spends. No points to decode; just amounts I could actually withdraw to my bank account later. I wasn’t gaming anything—just paying the way I already did. Some places didn’t earn rewards (utilities, government payments, jewelry, fuel, and a handful of service categories), and one vendor had credit-on-UPI turned off on their QR, so I used my bank account there. Fuel itself didn’t earn cashback, but the 1% fuel surcharge waiver helped within the eligible transaction slab.
Week three changed my behaviour. Kiwi made utilisation visible enough that I kept it modest. I set a reminder for my bill, watched the dates, and stopped dipping into savings for “just this week.” The chai shop, veg cart, chemist, and the family-run restaurant near home all had the same QR stands; the difference was that my UPI Credit Card—through Kiwi—was the rail beneath those scans.
By the end of the month, I didn’t need the WhatsApp message. The win wasn’t flashy; it was structural. The card I used via Kiwi is lifetime free—no joining or annual fee—and the rewards felt honest. I noticed there’s a premium upgrade (Kiwi Neon) for people who want to push milestones—₹999 a year, with higher cashback stepping up at ₹50,000, ₹1,00,000, and ₹1,50,000 annual spends, plus lounge access—but I stayed on the standard plan. What mattered most was the calm: one statement, clean rewards, and no awkward pings to friends at month-end.
How it worked for me
Kiwi provides a RuPay Credit Card that can be linked to UPI in the Kiwi app and used for transactions by scanning standard UPI QRs. Most merchants accepted credit on UPI; a few had it disabled. Cashback showed up only on eligible everyday offline UPI spends; excluded categories didn’t earn rewards. The fuel surcharge waiver applied on eligible fuel transaction amounts. Kiwi wasn’t my first credit card.
