In January 2020, the RBI extended the recurring payments feature to UPI. Since then, UPI AutoPay has been one of the most awaited features for many small businesses in India. Till now, that is. We circle back to this later, but let’s set the context first.
Recurring payments are nothing but the subscriptions that you as a business or service provider collect from your customers on a timely basis (daily/ weekly/ monthly or yearly). This can be monthly school fees, gym membership fees, insurance premiums, SAAS & OTT subscriptions, EMI payments, etc.
From the day the first transaction was initiated, UPI transaction volume has grown by leaps and bounds. Having recorded close to 2 billion transactions in October 2020, NPCI is about to mark the 2X year-on-year growth for UPI payments. After seeing the rapid rise in UPI adoption in such a short time period, NPCI announced the UPI AutoPay feature during the Global FinTech Fest 2020. It is widely accepted as the best method to collect recurring payments as it provides a much better user experience & transparency to the customers.
What is UPI AutoPay?
UPI AutoPay is a feature that allows customers to do recurring payments using any UPI application. Customers can now enable e-mandate for recurring payments, such as mobile bills, electricity bills, EMI payments, entertainment/OTT subscriptions, insurance, and mutual funds, among others.
Benefits of UPI AutoPay:
UPI AutoPay will empower users by providing them with a comfortable and secure way of making recurring payments. Here are some main benefits of this feature:
- Recurring payments get activated with a one-time authorization
- Real-time mandate confirmation
- Grow your customer base
- Lower chargebacks due to complete transparency
- Better success rates
- Timely payments
Where you can use UPI AutoPay?
With this new facility of UPI AutoPay, customers can use UPI applications for automating recurring payments such as subscriptions, fee collections, collecting donations, etc. If you’re a business owner, you can now set up customized plans like:
- SAAS Subscriptions Fees
- School Fees & Gym Membership Fees
- Getting donations from NGO
- Premium collections for mutual funds & insurance
- EMI collections for e-commerce companies
Want to know more about UPI AutoPay? Click here.