slice rolls out UPI-linked credit card to all users

By Vriti Gothi

slice has opened its UPI-linked credit card to all users, transitioning from an invite-only launch initiated in July 2025. The company said more than 1.2 million customers had already joined the waitlist ahead of the broader rollout, signalling strong early demand for credit products embedded within India’s real-time payments infrastructure.

The launch represents one of the first large-scale attempts to build a credit card natively on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a network that underpins the country’s fast-growing digital payments ecosystem. By integrating credit directly into UPI flows, slice is positioning the product to align with the everyday payment behaviour of Indian consumers, characterised by small-ticket, high-frequency transactions.

The card carries no joining, annual, or maintenance fees, and enables payments through QR codes or UPI IDs, similar to standard UPI transactions. A key feature, “slice in 3”, allows users to split purchases into three monthly instalments at no additional cost, effectively embedding buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) functionality into UPI usage.

According to the company, the product extends no-cost instalment access across 65 million merchants, which it describes as the largest deployment of such credit globally. This compares with an estimated 1.5 million merchants served collectively by leading BNPL providers worldwide, underscoring the scale advantage offered by UPI’s extensive acceptance network.

The card is also enabled for international usage across more than 200 countries, with no foreign exchange markup. In addition, users earn rewards on all transactions, including low-value payments a segment typically underserved by traditional credit card reward structures.

From a strategic standpoint, the rollout reflects a broader industry shift towards embedding credit within payments infrastructure. UPI already reaches approximately 300 million users in India, and slice’s approach seeks to layer formal credit access onto this base. The company said its underwriting models rely on real transaction behaviour, allowing it to assess creditworthiness dynamically and expand limits over time based on observed usage patterns.

The development is significant for the Fintech sector as it signals the evolution of UPI from a payments rail into a distribution channel for credit. If scaled effectively, such models could widen access to short-term credit while reshaping how financial institutions design products for digitally native consumers.