How to Pay Your Credit Card Instantly

Panicking because it’s your credit card due date? Need to free up some credit limit to pay for something? Here are all the ways I know how to pay off your credit card instantly.

You have a banking account with the bank your credit card is from

If you have a banking account with the same bank your credit card is from, you can pay your card instantly by transferring funds from your account to your card. You probably already knew this, so less known methods ahead:

If you don’t have an account with the bank your credit card is from

If you don’t have an account with the bank your credit card is from, did you know you could use FAST to pay off your credit card instantly? All you have to do is to add your credit card 16-digit number as the account number when adding a FAST recipient in your banking app, select the bank your credit card is from, then transfer money to it.

You will see the payment registered with your credit card almost instantly. This is useful for last-minute payments, and to free up your credit limit to make purchases if you need this.

This unfortunately does not work with every bank’s credit card, although I can verify that it works for credit cards from the following banks:

• OCBC
• Standard Chartered
• DBS
• Citibank
• UOB

And not cards from:

• HSBC
• Maybank
• Amex Cards
• CIMB

You should still be able to use your HSBC, Maybank, and/or CIMB bank accounts to pay other credit cards via FAST.

Do let us know if you know of more banks FAST works/does not work with.

Pay by AXS, if you’re paying an Amex card

Payments via AXS technically take around 2 working days to process, but my experience with Amex Basic Cards is that you can pay your Amex bill on the due date itself, and Amex will not charge you any late fees for it.

In fact, I have paid 5 minutes beyond the deadline, and Amex very graciously did not charge any late fee. Your credit limit still takes the usual 2-3 days to be updated, so I suppose this isn’t really an instant payment as much as it is Amex giving a longer grace period. I would suggest not waiting till the literal last minute though; banks tend to specify a cut-off time when it comes to AXS payments.

I am not sure if this works with co-branded cards like the UOB Absolute Amex card; if you have experience do let us know in the comments or Telegram group. Update: you can use FAST to pay your UOB Absolute Amex card.

Anecdotally from the group chat, I have also heard of HSBC credit cards recognising AXS payments on the same day.

Depositing cash via bank’s ATM

You could also deposit cash via the bank’s ATM if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic, but as old-school as this solution is, it definitely saved me from late fees when paying my Maybank card on the very last day. It’s an instant payment since the bank receives cash, and I believe this applies to every bank.

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