India’s biggest fintech companies, PhonePe, Paytm, and CRED, have stopped allowing users to pay rent through their apps. Rent payments have become one of the most popular, yet controversial ways for people to earn rewards with their credit cards in recent years.
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The change comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued new rules on September 15, 2025. Under these guidelines, payment aggregators (PAs) can only process payments for merchants with whom they have a direct contract. This means apps cannot collect rent payments on behalf of landlords, as landlords are not directly registered as merchants.
The RBI circular stated: “A PA shall aggregate funds only for the merchant with whom it has a contractual relationship. PA business shall not carry out marketplace business.”
This rule has forced fintech apps to immediately stop rent payment services. Experts say other platforms, such as NoBroker and Housing, may also suspend their rent payment services soon.
Bottom Line
The RBI’s updated guidelines aim to tighten oversight of payment aggregators and ensure proper Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. This move will affect a lot of consumers with personal and commercial credit cards, as many use them to earn Reward Points and milestone benefits by making rent payments with their credit cards.
Even before these latest guidelines from RBI, several banks and credit card issuers in India had already started curbing rent payments via credit cards by introducing additional charges on them.
All those who relied on paying rent through credit cards will now have to switch to more traditional methods like UPI or direct bank transfers.
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