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A digital payments revolution in India

economist.com

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Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#41
UPI is the best! It is like Mastercard, stripe, bank transfers, Venmo and goolf ol cash combined, only that it is available as a free public utility.

If they only introduce a way to do chargebacks (or a fair dispute mechanism), the remaining few cash transactions will go away too.

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#42

[flagged]

How is it different from any digital payment? Many European countries and the US has been doing digital transactions for like 2 decades now. How was it not authoritarian then but suddenly when the Asian people do it, it's a way to track everything people does and not the simplest explanation which is it makes transactions easier?

And every non-citizen visitor to the US gets fingerprinted and photographed.

How's that for "land of the free", eh?

And while we're at it: every phone call in the US gets recorded and stored. That's what that big datacenter in Utah is for.

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it different from any digital payment? Many European countries and the US has been doing digital transactions for like 2 decades now. How was it not authoritarian then but suddenly when the Asian people do it, it's a way to track everything people does and not the simplest explanation which is it makes transactions easier?

India outlawed the usage of any bill larger than the equivalent of a $US 5 (500-rupee and up) in 2016, which was intended to force people into the digital payments system. This is much more coercive than the Euro-US approach. For an overview and pro/con arguments in the global government-led war on cash: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/021816/why-g... It's also an attempt to collect a percentage of al…

Please do remember that the 500 and 1000 rupee notes were promptly replaced with a new 500 and 2000 rupee note series.

Moreover, it was not made illegal, rather it was no longer considered legal tender. A far cry from making it illegal.

There are on the other hand limits on the size of cash only transactions without a PAN Card (tax documentation)

Recently, the reserve bank has announced that it is going to withdraw the 2000 rupee note. That means that it will no longer print or issue via banks 2000 rupee notes.

They will still remain legal tender.

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#44
post #6

When you pay a merchant $100 with your card they get about $97. When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains. The bank owns the other $85. Cash is a hassle but it cuts out the middlemen. We need a unified payment system in western countries, but it's almost impossible given how much of a chokehold big banks have over our economy. Capitalism at its finest.

UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now). So if you pay with UPI to someone and have a dispute, good luck. You have to approach the Indian courts to get your money back, which, given the Indian justice system, is… difficult. By contrast, dispute resolution with cards is much easier. Also, I don’t recognise this 3% figure — not in all geographies. Eg Europe under PSD2 has 0.3% for credit cards, and 0.2% for debit car…

> UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now)

Not true. [1]

[1]: https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/dispute-redressal-mec...

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#45
post #6

When you pay a merchant $100 with your card they get about $97. When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains. The bank owns the other $85. Cash is a hassle but it cuts out the middlemen. We need a unified payment system in western countries, but it's almost impossible given how much of a chokehold big banks have over our economy. Capitalism at its finest.

UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now). So if you pay with UPI to someone and have a dispute, good luck. You have to approach the Indian courts to get your money back, which, given the Indian justice system, is… difficult. By contrast, dispute resolution with cards is much easier. Also, I don’t recognise this 3% figure — not in all geographies. Eg Europe under PSD2 has 0.3% for credit cards, and 0.2% for debit car…

The EEA cap on fees only applies to interchange in 4-party schemes, i.e. the part that goes back to the issuing bank. PSPs typically charge between 0.7 and 1.5%. But yes, it's possible to do much better than countries like the US. For starters because card-present fraud is virtually nonexistent, and online fraud is drastically lower thanks to SCA.

That said, you're right, there's a fundamental difference between moving funds in an immutable way (whose marginal price tends to zero) and a payment system.

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#46

[flagged]

It's regrettable and astounding at the same time that a factual comment is getting downvoted. UPI should absolutely introduce a facility to chargeback a transaction, which is why I always prefer to use my credit card, if possible.

Not sure if you are unfamiliar with the credit cards issued in India, but my bank's fraud protection is limited to "did someone steal your card and make a payment"

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#47
post #6

When you pay a merchant $100 with your card they get about $97. When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains. The bank owns the other $85. Cash is a hassle but it cuts out the middlemen. We need a unified payment system in western countries, but it's almost impossible given how much of a chokehold big banks have over our economy. Capitalism at its finest.

UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now). So if you pay with UPI to someone and have a dispute, good luck. You have to approach the Indian courts to get your money back, which, given the Indian justice system, is… difficult. By contrast, dispute resolution with cards is much easier. Also, I don’t recognise this 3% figure — not in all geographies. Eg Europe under PSD2 has 0.3% for credit cards, and 0.2% for debit car…

Which means bifurcation will occur. Payments where you have high trust and confidence you won’t need a dispute will use UPI or similar instant payment rails. Transactions where you are not confident or are concerned a dispute is going to be required, you’ll pay the transaction fee to use CC rails. Credit cards will become “insured payment” rails for lower trust transactions.

I’d never dispute a payment to my mortgage servicer or electrical utility, but I absolutely might for a rando Facebook ad sale.

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#48
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now). So if you pay with UPI to someone and have a dispute, good luck. You have to approach the Indian courts to get your money back, which, given the Indian justice system, is… difficult. By contrast, dispute resolution with cards is much easier. Also, I don’t recognise this 3% figure — not in all geographies. Eg Europe under PSD2 has 0.3% for credit cards, and 0.2% for debit car…

> UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now) Not true. [1] [1]: https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/upi/dispute-redressal-mec...

Glad to see it.

It makes me sad that there are so many misconceptions about UPI that people are willing to resort to falsehoods (such as CBDCs and privacy) and it shows that most criticisms are from people that haven't used it in the real world.

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#49
post #6

When you pay a merchant $100 with your card they get about $97. When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains. The bank owns the other $85. Cash is a hassle but it cuts out the middlemen. We need a unified payment system in western countries, but it's almost impossible given how much of a chokehold big banks have over our economy. Capitalism at its finest.

> When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains.

Just to nitpick: 0.97^50 is 0.21806. So only $21.81 would remain and the banks would have $78.19

Re: A digital payments revolution in India

#50
post #6

When you pay a merchant $100 with your card they get about $97. When this $100 has exchanged hands 50 times only $15 remains. The bank owns the other $85. Cash is a hassle but it cuts out the middlemen. We need a unified payment system in western countries, but it's almost impossible given how much of a chokehold big banks have over our economy. Capitalism at its finest.

UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now). So if you pay with UPI to someone and have a dispute, good luck. You have to approach the Indian courts to get your money back, which, given the Indian justice system, is… difficult. By contrast, dispute resolution with cards is much easier. Also, I don’t recognise this 3% figure — not in all geographies. Eg Europe under PSD2 has 0.3% for credit cards, and 0.2% for debit car…

> UPI has no dispute resolution (as of now).

And cash does??

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