UPI auto pay: Loan, rent payments and subscriptions made easier

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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) UPI Autopay service was launched last year, however, the initiative gained the due attention off late. This is due to UPI Autopay’s recently announced partnership with top OTT players like Netflix and Hotstar. Reportedly, other Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps such as PhonePe and Google Pay are also in advanced stages of rollout and testing.

UPI Autopay offer customers the facility to make recurring transactions below Rs 5,000 through various UPI-linked apps. What’s exciting for customers is the wide range of services offered via this digital payment facility. It includes the options for loan repayment, rent payment, educational fees and various OTT subscriptions as well.

“Consumers will be able to conduct recurring transactions with ease as a result of UPI autopay. Because autopay has a limit of Rs 5000, this function will assist in paying modest financial commitments such as subscription fees, loan repayments, rent, any other fees, and more, without the trouble of using a debit or credit card,” said Krishnan Vishwanathan, CEO and founder at Kissht.

Three top Indian banks, namely, State Bank of India, Paytm Payments Bank and Bank of Baroda are live on UPI Autopay. According to the NPCI website, these banks have registered 660,000, 204,000 and 186,000 mandates, respectively, in August.

Alongside Netflix and Hotstar, subscription based platforms like The Hindu, Times Prime, PayU, FSS, Testbook.com, Open, Angel Broking and 5paisa.com are also live on UPI Autopay.

“The autopay feature is a boon for small enterprises that collect regular remuneration because it allows users to adjust the due amount as well as the duration and frequency of debit. This is advantageous to both sides since it enables businesses to have a personalised debit arrangement with their customers by one-time authorisation,” Vishwanathan said.

The Walmart-backed digital payments platform – PhonePe recently declared that it has successfully  registered one million UPI Autopay transactions in the last three months vis-a-vis OTT subscriptions, wallet top-ups, and SIPs.

As per a report in ET, a minimum of 100 online merchants across categories such as streaming, financial services, wealth management, news media and education are also expected to roll out automated UPI payments after testing.