There is no denying that in the digital payment revolution in India, UPI has come up at the forefront, with more promising features than any other payment app or wallet available in the market. UPI or the United Payments Interface was created by the NPCI to enable users to make instant transfers to merchants or other users by directly taking funds from the user’s bank account and sending them to another UPI ID or Virtual Payment Address.
There are many ways that UPI has simplified how Indians make payments online, but perhaps the most important feature of UPI has been the interoperability of the system, allowing users to send or receive money through various UPI apps. This, as well as many more benefits, can be why UPI has the highest market share in the country today.
In this article, we want to take a closer look at the various ways in which UPI has made life easier for Indian users.
- UPI has made online shopping a breeze.
When it came to shopping online, Indians were pretty apprehensive until a few years ago. In fact, many online merchants had to keep a Cash on Delivery option in order to allow users to purchase products.
While COD options do still exist, most users now prefer to shop online using online payments, most importantly, UPI. Not only can users transfer money instantly, but there is also no need for any OTPs or additional steps – simply open your UPI app, enter your pin, and pay!
- UPI has made online gaming easier.
Online gaming is one industry that has benefited vastly from the availability of UPI. Most Indians now prefer to make in-game purchases using UPI. Whether players are interested in playing online real money games or are wagering money on various betting sites in India, UPI is the preferred choice of payment for users.
- UPI has also optimized local shopping.
Gone are the days when we would argue with a local shopkeeper over a few coins of change that we didn’t have. Today, users can very simply make any payments through UPI, whether it is to their local shopkeeper or their local vegetable vendor.
UPI has also made it easier for vendors to simply receive payment in their bank accounts, instead of having to keep track of wads of cash they made every day.
- UPI has enabled free payments.
While there are other digital payment apps or wallets that have tried to give competition to UPI, they have been beaten due to the lack of one key feature – free transfers of funds.
With UPI, the transfer of funds is not only completely free but also instant and secure. Users can pay as many times as they want, without worrying about paying any commission to the apps that enabled the payment.
- No loss of interest on savings.
One benefit of UPI that not a lot of people consider is the fact that users do not lose any interest that they would have otherwise earned on savings. If a user had to deposit money into a wallet, they would not receive any interest on those savings while they existed in the wallet.
Since UPI takes money directly from the bank account, your money keeps earning interest until it has to be used!
