Can You Pay a Credit Card Bill With Another Credit Card?

Banks don't offer this because card networks don't allow it

Open your credit card bill payment screen on any bank app and you'll see net banking, UPI, debit card, and sometimes a wallet. You won't see "pay with another credit card" as an option, on any Indian bank's app. That's not a missing feature. Visa, Mastercard, and RuPay's own network rules, combined with how Indian banks have implemented them, block using one credit card to directly fund a payment on another. The reasoning is straightforward: letting people revolve debt from one card to another with no underlying purchase defeats the purpose of what a card transaction is supposed to represent.

So what do people who need this actually use?

A few workarounds exist, and each comes with its own cost:

• Balance transfer. Your new card's issuer settles the outstanding balance on your old card directly, usually via NEFT or a demand draft, and moves that amount onto your new card, often at a lower promotional rate for a fixed window. This is the closest thing to "paying one card with another," but it's a formal product you apply for, not a same-day fix, and it usually carries a processing fee of 1% to 3% of the amount moved. We've covered how a balance transfer actually works in more detail.
• Cash advance. Withdraw cash from one card, then use it to pay another card's bill. This works mechanically, but a cash advance carries a fee (commonly 2.5% to 3% of the amount) plus interest that starts accruing the moment the cash leaves the card, with no interest-free window at all. We've covered what a cash advance actually costs, and the numbers rarely work out in your favor for something this indirect.
• Third-party bill payment apps. Some apps let you pay a credit card bill, but the funding source is almost always your bank account or UPI, not another card, for the same network-rule reason above.

What the two workarounds actually cost, side by side

Say you owe ₹40,000 on Card A and want to clear it using money effectively pulled from Card B. As a cash advance: a 3% fee (₹1,200) plus interest at roughly 3% a month starting immediately, so even clearing it within 20 days adds up to somewhere around ₹1,900 to ₹2,000 total, before GST. As a balance transfer instead: a 2% processing fee (₹800), and if the receiving card offers a promotional low rate, close to nothing in interest as long as you pay it off inside that window. On the identical ₹40,000, the balance transfer route is typically less than half the cost of a cash advance, precisely because it's built as a debt-management product, not a workaround.

Why the rule exists

MDR, the fee merchants pay to accept card payments, exists because a card transaction is supposed to represent buying something from a merchant. A credit card bill isn't a purchase in that sense, and RBI's card acceptance rules are built around merchants not passing card-processing costs onto customers as a hidden surcharge. A pathway where card A pays card B's bill sidesteps both of those foundations, which is a large part of why no bank has built one.

A common reason people ask this that has nothing to do with debt

Not everyone looking for this is trying to manage a balance, some are trying to hit a new card's welcome-bonus spend threshold or a milestone benefit by routing spend through it, then "settle up" using an existing card. That doesn't work either, for the same network reason, and manufacturing spend this way usually costs more in fees than the bonus is worth. If a milestone or welcome bonus is the actual goal, it's cheaper to simply redirect genuine spending you were already going to make onto the new card, rather than trying to move money between cards to simulate it.

If the real goal is managing debt, not convenience

If you're trying to buy time on a balance you can't clear right now, a proper balance transfer (once it's set up) or converting the outstanding amount into EMI through your existing issuer is almost always cheaper than routing cash through a second card. Both come with a fee, but neither carries the compounding-from-day-one interest that a cash advance does.