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PhonePe Launches UPI Circle: A New Feature for Enhanced Digital Payments

PhonePe has officially introduced its UPI Circle feature in India, providing a unique solution for users to facilitate transactions without requiring secondary users to have their own bank accounts. This development, initiated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), aims to promote the greater adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) while enabling controlled spending among users. Notably, although Google Pay announced its plans to support UPI Circle back in August 2024, the feature has not yet been made available nationwide.

Features and Advantages of UPI Circle

The rollout of UPI Circle by PhonePe enables users to create a designated circle of trusted contacts, such as family and friends, empowering them to generate individual UPI IDs for these contacts, irrespective of whether they possess a bank account.

After establishing a UPI Circle, a primary user can designate “secondary” users, allowing them to make online purchases and pay bills through the primary user’s bank account. This allows for easier transaction processing while maintaining oversight.

The primary user can manage the usage of the UPI Circle in one of two modes. In the Partial Delegation mode, the primary user must authorize each transaction initiated by secondary users. Alternatively, the Full Delegation mode permits the primary user to set a monthly spending limit for secondary users without requiring prior approval for each transaction. This limit can be set as high as Rs. 15,000, with individual transaction caps of Rs. 5,000.

Monitoring and control are significant aspects of this feature; primary users can revoke access to secondary users at any time and stay informed about transaction activities as they occur. Additionally, personalized monthly spending limits can be set for each secondary user within the circle.

While primary users can add up to five secondary users in their circle, each secondary user can only be linked to one primary user at any given time. Importantly, the primary user will receive notifications upon the completion of each transaction, even under full delegation settings.

In a competitive landscape, Google Pay’s anticipated support for the UPI Circle feature is on the horizon, though its widespread implementation has not yet occurred. Users also have the option to explore the UPI Circle feature through the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) app, which similarly supports this functionality.

Source
www.gadgets360.com