Do you write cheques for credit card payments? Cheque days are over for some time after RBI and banks introduced services like account to card transfer and charging a bit but they seem to be over too now.

Only a month ago, I was also using the ICICI Bank’s Account to Card transfer facility to pay my HSBC credit cards bills online but ICICI Bank seems to have discontinued the facility.

What now??

After spending couple of hours on Google and talking to multiple bankers on phone I found out not only a better option but financial efficient as well.

I used to pay around Rs 20 for the account to card transfer to pay bills and it used to take minimum 2 working days but using this new option the payment happens within the same day and with no extra charge. WOW.

This is how you can do it too.

While searching I came to know of a website which is dedicated for the HSBC credit cards and paying its bills online. It’s www.hsbccreditcard.com. It’s very similar to www.sbicard.com that we have for State Bank of India’s credit cards but that is only for US users only.

After googling more and talking to my bankers, I came to know that I can pay my credit card bills using NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) from my savings accounts. It’s like transferring from one account to another in different bank.

Some banks charges for NEFT transactions and some don’t. I use Citibank to do inter-bank transfers and it charges nothing for it.

This is how you have to do it.

• Add your credit card as a beneficiary for NEFT transactions.

• Your credit card number will be the account number.

• Name on the credit card will be the name of the account holder.

• To choose the bank branch, type in HSBC01INDIA as the IFSC code of target bank (which is the IFSC code of Payments division of HSBC bank), or choose following HSBC bank branch.

• After the beneficiary is successfully added.

• Initiate the NEFT (inter-bank transfer) request for the exact HSBC credit card bill amount.

• Card bill would be paid within the same day.

I find this really helpful and hope the same facility (that HSBC is providing) is provided by other banks too.

Let us know if you come across similar facility in other banks.