UPI payments in India

UPI has the advantage over Paytm, FreeCharge, etc because

• UPI directly debits/credits your bank a/c.
• UPI is supported by Government of India. The government forces banks to charge little or no fee for transactions. Also the government makes rules, so that UPI is accepted in many places.

Hence prefer UPI.

To use UPI, you have 2 choices

1. Use BHIM app from Government of India. This is the only practical option, if you have a/c with a government bank like SBI, OBC, etc.
2. Use App of your bank e.g. ICICI has iMobile app. This App will usually give you more features than BHIM and will be faster. This option is available only from private banks like ICICI, HDFC, etc.

You can install both BHIM and private bank UPI app on one mobile.

Payment by UPI will continue to grow in India, primarily because the Government of India is forcing merchants, organizations, businesses, etc to accept UPI.

As a general guideline, the order of preference is

1. Use cash, if possible. This will have maximum privacy.
2. Use Credit card for online shopping because payments can be deferred by few months and refunds are convenient.
3. Use UPI e.g. while paying to a friend, when exact cash is not available; cheque is inconvenient; not POS machine is available.