Meaning:

This is a special service by which one can transfer money from his or her bank account to any credit card account issued in a specific country. This is a powerful funds transfer channel by electronic means. This facility enables money to be transferred to millions of credit card holders to thousands of cities across the globe. The system is similar, in many respects, to the third-party transfer option given by many banks to their account holders via electronic cheques.
Popular players like Visa, MasterCard are leading the stack in this industry for such services.

How it works?

This is typically an online service and requires Internet enabled banking account with a bank that extends this service. If a user has registered himself with Internet banking service, he may just need to log into that bank’s website and enter the payee name and the card number before transferring funds online.
One needs to know the payee's digital card number and his/her name to effect payment to the same.

Advantages:

• It is a fast simple and very convenient means of transferring money as compared to conventional means as demand drafts, cheques or pay orders. It normally takes 2 to 3 working days for the system to transfer funds to the payee
• It is an efficient, secure, reliable and expeditious means to transfer funds throughout the world
• Transactions performed are extremely safe and secure.
• One can pay any credit card bills using a credit card money transfer service; one simply needs to register a credit card number for which the payment is to be made.
• One can also schedule future dated payments through the system
• The payer also has the advantage of setting the per day limit of amount to be paid to the payee
• Free of cost/negligible/affordable cost
• Some banks also allow the balance of credit cards taken from them by their customers to be transferred by phone or Internet
• This is not limited to transactions inside a specific country, it can be used to transfer funds from any part of the globe to anywhere else


Disadvantages:

• Payments once made/initiated cannot be revoked / stopped; also, the amount of the payment cannot be updated / modified. This can lead to wrong credits to undesired people
• Since the medium is electronic, technical snags in the system may prevent smooth functioning of the same, which may be irritating in urgent situations
• Availability of the required infrastructure (computer, Internet) is essential to bring about such kind of transactions, which cannot be easily available if a person is traveling
• Antisocial elements on the Internet like hackers, phishers, fraudsters, etc may gain access to the system, which can be disastrous to the success of such a system. Security is a key concern for success of online transactions.

This concept is widely attaining popularity among many credit card holders due to the advantages listed above. It also carries the inbuilt advantage of credit money plus electronic transfers.