Hey TFCians,
I hope you guys remember my post from November 2024 about that technical glitch where people paid their credit card bills using the SBI Unipay platform.
The twist? The amount was successfully credited to their credit cards and they also received refunds from Unipay for “failed” transactions - which were actually successful. 😅
If you haven’t read that story yet, go check it here 👇
Now fast forward to the present…
Recently, Akash and a few others posted on Twitter claiming that someone from the CCGeek community has been sharing screenshots and insider information about such glitches with banks, payment gateways, and even the RBI.
According to them, a person who’s been pretending to be part of the "credit card scene" is actually reporting all this behind the scenes.
Now, I personally don’t have any insider connection with banks, payment processors, or RBI officials like them... so I can’t confirm this.
But knowing these guys, if they’re saying it, there might be some truth to it.
Now let’s talk about the real issue -
Recently, Axis Bank started sending notices to multiple credit card users asking for proof of “personal transactions.”
Most of these users had used their cards on platforms like Maximize, and few others.
These apps were openly selling gift cards and advertising stuff like:
If you don’t know what MCC means, it stands for Merchant Category Code. (Read here: https://technofino.in/community/thr...ences-of-merchants-using-the-wrong-mcc.17170/)
Each business is assigned an MCC based on the kind of transactions it processes.
And it really matters because your rewards, cashback, and even extra charges (like on fuel or utilities) depend on MCCs.
Let me explain with a simple example 👇
If you own a store that sells groceries and clothes, you can have two MCCs - one for groceries and one for clothing.
But you must use the grocery MCC only for grocery payments and clothing MCC for clothing payments.
You cannot use a grocery MCC to process a clothing sale. That’s against the rules.
But what these platforms were doing was openly allowing users to select “wrong” MCCs - even using hotel MCCs for buying gift cards!
To be honest, wrong MCC tagging is very common in India - and it’s high time the RBI steps in to fix this.
Because MCC impacts how banks categorize your spending and decide whether you earn rewards or get charged extra fees.
If you’ve ever taken advantage of such a glitch to earn extra reward points, be prepared, the bank can reverse those points anytime.
And honestly, you shouldn’t try to justify it. You know deep down those weren’t earned fairly.
On the flip side, those platforms doing wrong MCC tagging are equally responsible.
Many companies have used wrong MCCs for different purposes - some for wallet loading, some for selling gift cards, and even for bill payments. A few months ago, even Amazon was using its e-commerce MCC for Amazon Pay bill payments. CRED and several other big players have done similar things too. But Maximize took this to the next level, I must say. 😅
So even if someone did report this to banks or regulators, I personally don’t think they did anything wrong.
Such practices can hurt genuine users - banks might even devalue or discontinue their credit card reward programs on certain MCCs if abuse continues.
We, as normal users, should never support this kind of misuse.
And trust me - banks are always aware of what’s happening.
They might not act immediately, but they know everything that’s going on.
(Sharing this from my own experience 😉)
Lastly, I’ve seen a few people assuming that I was the one who reported all this to the banks and other authorities.
Lol, no - I didn’t.
If I ever did something like that, I’d have told you guys upfront here on TF Community.
I’ve never hesitated to admit the truth or own up to what I’ve done.
Moral of the story:
Don’t mess around with system glitches. You might pocket a quick win, but the long-term fallout - damaged transaction history, reversed rewards, cancelled cards, and harm to the wider rewards ecosystem - isn’t worth it. If you decide to use a loophole anyway, be mentally prepared to face the consequences (reward reversals, card bans, even legal notices) - and please don’t try to argue your way out when the bank takes action.
I hope you guys remember my post from November 2024 about that technical glitch where people paid their credit card bills using the SBI Unipay platform.
The twist? The amount was successfully credited to their credit cards and they also received refunds from Unipay for “failed” transactions - which were actually successful. 😅
If you haven’t read that story yet, go check it here 👇
Now fast forward to the present…
Recently, Akash and a few others posted on Twitter claiming that someone from the CCGeek community has been sharing screenshots and insider information about such glitches with banks, payment gateways, and even the RBI.
According to them, a person who’s been pretending to be part of the "credit card scene" is actually reporting all this behind the scenes.
Now, I personally don’t have any insider connection with banks, payment processors, or RBI officials like them... so I can’t confirm this.
But knowing these guys, if they’re saying it, there might be some truth to it.
Now let’s talk about the real issue -
Recently, Axis Bank started sending notices to multiple credit card users asking for proof of “personal transactions.”
Most of these users had used their cards on platforms like Maximize, and few others.
These apps were openly selling gift cards and advertising stuff like:
Sounds cool, right? But here’s where the problem starts.
If you don’t know what MCC means, it stands for Merchant Category Code. (Read here: https://technofino.in/community/thr...ences-of-merchants-using-the-wrong-mcc.17170/)
Each business is assigned an MCC based on the kind of transactions it processes.
And it really matters because your rewards, cashback, and even extra charges (like on fuel or utilities) depend on MCCs.
Let me explain with a simple example 👇
If you own a store that sells groceries and clothes, you can have two MCCs - one for groceries and one for clothing.
But you must use the grocery MCC only for grocery payments and clothing MCC for clothing payments.
You cannot use a grocery MCC to process a clothing sale. That’s against the rules.
But what these platforms were doing was openly allowing users to select “wrong” MCCs - even using hotel MCCs for buying gift cards!
To be honest, wrong MCC tagging is very common in India - and it’s high time the RBI steps in to fix this.
Because MCC impacts how banks categorize your spending and decide whether you earn rewards or get charged extra fees.
If you’ve ever taken advantage of such a glitch to earn extra reward points, be prepared, the bank can reverse those points anytime.
And honestly, you shouldn’t try to justify it. You know deep down those weren’t earned fairly.
On the flip side, those platforms doing wrong MCC tagging are equally responsible.
Many companies have used wrong MCCs for different purposes - some for wallet loading, some for selling gift cards, and even for bill payments. A few months ago, even Amazon was using its e-commerce MCC for Amazon Pay bill payments. CRED and several other big players have done similar things too. But Maximize took this to the next level, I must say. 😅
So even if someone did report this to banks or regulators, I personally don’t think they did anything wrong.
Such practices can hurt genuine users - banks might even devalue or discontinue their credit card reward programs on certain MCCs if abuse continues.
We, as normal users, should never support this kind of misuse.
And trust me - banks are always aware of what’s happening.
They might not act immediately, but they know everything that’s going on.
(Sharing this from my own experience 😉)
Lastly, I’ve seen a few people assuming that I was the one who reported all this to the banks and other authorities.
Lol, no - I didn’t.
If I ever did something like that, I’d have told you guys upfront here on TF Community.
I’ve never hesitated to admit the truth or own up to what I’ve done.
Moral of the story:
Don’t mess around with system glitches. You might pocket a quick win, but the long-term fallout - damaged transaction history, reversed rewards, cancelled cards, and harm to the wider rewards ecosystem - isn’t worth it. If you decide to use a loophole anyway, be mentally prepared to face the consequences (reward reversals, card bans, even legal notices) - and please don’t try to argue your way out when the bank takes action.
