From credit card EMIs to cardless financing, UPI-linked affordability and Pay in 3, India is changing how consumers access credit at checkout. And for businesses, this opens up a much bigger opportunity.
Think about the last time you made a big purchase online.
Maybe it was a smartphone, a laptop, a refrigerator, or even a holiday.
You found what you wanted. Compared prices. Looked for offers. Added it to your cart.
And somewhere between deciding to buy and making the payment, you probably asked yourself a familiar question:
Should I pay the full amount today, or spread it over a few months?
Not too long ago, the answer largely depended on one thing.
Did you have an eligible credit card?
For years, credit cards were the most familiar way to access EMIs while shopping online. If you didn’t have one, your options were considerably more limited.
But India is changing that equation.
Today, customers can access instalment-based financing through debit cards, cardless credit, eligible UPI-linked credit instruments and shorter repayment plans.
And this evolution is about something much bigger than introducing more payment methods.
India is moving from a world where access to EMI was closely tied to cards, to one where financing is increasingly connected to the purchase itself.
The numbers tell us why this shift matters.
India’s appetite for financing is growing. But credit cards aren’t the whole story.
Credit cards have played an important role in India’s EMI journey. And they continue to be relevant.
By March 2026, India had approximately 11.86 crore outstanding credit cards, according to RBI data.
That’s a substantial number. But there’s an important distinction: the number of cards in circulation isn’t the same as the number of unique people who own them. Some consumers hold multiple cards, while many others don’t have one at all.
Now, consider what’s happening beyond credit cards.
According to CRIF High Mark’s How India Lends, May 2026 report:
These figures don’t mean consumers are abandoning credit cards. They show that different forms of consumer credit are growing at different rates.
And there’s another interesting part of the story.
CRIF High Mark’s Bridging the Gap, April 2026 report found that 4.4 crore consumers entered formal credit in the 12 months ending February 2026, with consumer durable loans emerging as the leading entry product for new-to-credit borrowers.
Think about what that means.
For a first-time borrower, the entry into formal credit may not begin with getting a credit card.
It could begin with financing a smartphone, a washing machine or another purchase they already intend to make.
The need for affordability has never been limited to cardholders. Now, the ways to access it are expanding too.
And that’s an important change for businesses.
A customer without an eligible credit card isn’t necessarily a customer without financing options.
The opportunity is to make those options available, understandable and relevant when the customer is ready to buy.
From needing a card to having more ways to pay
To understand how far EMI has come, it’s worth looking at how the experience has evolved.
It started with credit card EMIs.
For customers with eligible cards and available credit limits, a large purchase could be converted into manageable monthly payments.
Then came debit card EMI, extending financing opportunities to eligible customers who didn’t necessarily own credit cards.
Cardless financing widened access further, allowing eligible customers to use lender-approved credit without relying on a traditional payment card.
Meanwhile, no-cost EMI made eligible purchases more attractive by offsetting financing costs through merchant, brand or lender-funded offers.
Each development addressed a different customer need.
And together, they changed the role of EMI in online shopping.
Consider someone purchasing a ₹45,000 television.
A few years ago, the availability of EMI might have depended primarily on whether they had an eligible credit card.
Today, that same customer could potentially explore debit card EMI, cardless financing or a promotional no-cost EMI plan, depending on eligibility and available offers.
The television hasn’t changed. Neither has its price.
What’s changed is the number of ways an eligible customer might be able to manage that expense.
But even with more financing options available, one challenge remains.
What happens if customers don’t know those options exist?
That’s where the next phase of affordability becomes interesting.
EMI is moving beyond cards. Now it’s entering India’s most familiar payment journey.
If there’s one payment method that has changed everyday transactions in India, it’s UPI.
From a ₹50 cup of coffee to online shopping and bill payments, UPI has become a familiar part of how millions of Indians pay.
By September 2026, monthly UPI transactions had reached approximately 2,407 crore, or nearly 80 crore transactions a day.
Now consider the opportunity.
What if a customer who is already comfortable paying through UPI could also discover an eligible EMI option within that payment journey?
Instead of searching for financing separately, they could see relevant plans while deciding how to pay.
The foundations of this experience are already taking shape.
NPCI’s RuPay Credit Card on UPI framework enables eligible credit cards to be linked to UPI apps and supports EMI conversion for eligible transactions, depending on the issuer and payment journey.
And the next step is bringing those financing choices closer to the merchant checkout.
Bringing EMI into the UPI checkout experience
At Global Fintech Fest 2026, PayU, in collaboration with NPCI, introduced Contextual EMI on UPI, enabling EMI options to be presented within the UPI payment journey for eligible transactions above ₹2,500.
Here’s why this matters.
Imagine a customer shopping for a ₹30,000 appliance.
They reach checkout, ready to pay through UPI.
Instead of having to independently check whether their linked credit instrument supports EMI, the customer can discover eligible plans, applicable offers and repayment amounts within the merchant’s payment experience.
They can evaluate their options before deciding how to complete the purchase.
For merchants, this creates an opportunity to bring financing into the buying decision, rather than leaving customers to discover it elsewhere.
It could help improve offer discovery, support higher-value purchases and reduce hesitation around large upfront payments.
Of course, eligibility and actual outcomes depend on the supported credit instrument, lender, offer and checkout experience.
But the larger development is significant.
UPI is already a familiar way to pay. Bringing EMI into that journey could make eligible financing easier to discover and use.
And as affordability becomes more closely connected to everyday payment experiences, another question emerges.
Does every customer need a traditional six- or twelve-month EMI plan?
Not necessarily.
Beyond traditional EMIs: Why three payments might be enough
Think about two different purchases.
One customer is buying a ₹60,000 refrigerator.
Another is purchasing ₹9,000 headphones.
Both may prefer to avoid paying the entire amount upfront. But their repayment needs could be very different.
The refrigerator buyer might prefer a longer EMI tenure.
The headphones buyer might simply want to divide the expense across a few months.
This is where shorter-tenure instalment products are adding another dimension to affordability.
A different kind of flexibility with LazyPay Pay in 3
With LazyPay Pay in 3, available on PayU checkout, eligible customers can split a purchase into three equal instalments.
The first instalment is paid at checkout, while the remaining two are collected in the following months, as per the repayment schedule.
For example, a ₹9,000 purchase could be split into three instalments of ₹3,000 each, excluding any applicable fees.
And while customers repay in parts, merchants receive the full order value upfront.
It’s a relatively simple proposition, but it reflects a broader change in consumer financing.
Not every purchase requires a long repayment commitment. Not every customer wants the same financing structure.
Some may prefer traditional credit card EMI. Others may qualify for cardless financing. Some may find a short, three-instalment plan more suitable.
The future of affordability isn’t about making everyone use the same EMI product. It’s about offering different ways to manage different purchases.
And for businesses, that distinction matters.
What does this shift mean for Indian businesses?
For years, offering EMI at checkout was largely about enabling an additional payment option.
Today, it can play a much wider role in how businesses attract customers, present products and support purchase decisions.
Consider a customer browsing a ₹50,000 smartphone.
Seeing the full price tells them what the product costs.
Seeing an eligible monthly instalment amount, applicable offers and repayment terms helps them understand how they might pay for it.
That information could influence their decision before they even reach checkout.
The opportunity for merchants is evolving in three ways.
1. Affordability can begin before checkout.
Displaying indicative EMI amounts and eligible offers on product pages or in the cart can help customers evaluate higher-value purchases earlier.
2. Financing can serve a wider range of customers.
Credit card EMI remains important, but debit card EMI, cardless financing, UPI-linked EMI and shorter instalment plans can address different eligibility profiles and repayment preferences.
A broader set of options gives businesses more opportunities to meet customers where they are.
3. Relevance matters more than the number of options.
Showing every financing plan to every customer isn’t necessarily helpful.
A better experience makes eligible options easy to discover, with clear repayment amounts, total costs and applicable offers.
For businesses, the impact should be measured through checkout conversion, average order value, financing adoption and the incremental value of offers, rather than EMI volumes alone.
Because the real opportunity isn’t simply to offer more ways to pay.
It’s to make the right payment choices visible when they can influence a purchase decision.
The next chapter: From card-based EMI to contextual affordability
So, what does the future look like?
India’s EMI journey has already moved through several stages.
From credit card EMIs to debit card EMIs.
From card-dependent financing to cardless credit.
From conventional repayment tenures to shorter instalment plans.
And now, from EMI as a separate payment feature to financing that can become part of familiar experiences like UPI.
The next stage could be even more interesting.
Imagine a shopping experience where a customer browsing a product can see an indicative monthly payment, discover relevant offers and understand available financing choices without having to search across multiple payment methods.
Or a checkout that makes eligible financing options easier to compare based on the purchase amount, repayment schedule and total payable cost.
For customers, that could mean greater choice and clarity.
For merchants, it could mean reaching customers who may previously have had fewer suitable payment options, while creating more opportunities to convert purchase intent into completed transactions.
And for India’s fintech ecosystem, it points towards a future where payments, lending and commerce become more closely connected.
This evolution will also require responsible lending, transparent pricing, appropriate eligibility checks and clear repayment disclosures.
Because making financing easier to access must go hand in hand with helping customers make informed decisions.
The bigger picture
There was a time when EMI was almost synonymous with having an eligible card.
That is no longer the complete story.
India’s affordability ecosystem is expanding through cardless financing, new repayment structures and credit experiences built around familiar payment journeys.
Developments such as Contextual EMI on UPI and LazyPay Pay in 3 are examples of how that evolution is taking shape.
And this is what makes the next chapter particularly exciting.
The question is no longer only whether a customer has a card that supports EMI.
It’s whether a business can help an eligible customer discover a suitable financing option when it matters most.
Explore PayU’s affordability solutions, including Credit Card EMI, Debit Card EMI, Cardless EMI, No-Cost EMI and Checkout Finance: https://payu.in/emi/
