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Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

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Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#71

Post by SSLy »

jrumbut wrote: post #46
sudshekhar wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Otherwise, the inconvenience of a branch visit negates any usefulness. Unfortunately, existing regulations in India mandate a one-time physical verification before we can unlock you for a full-fledged prepaid account without applying artificial limits. Our team is definitely looking into way to make this entire process online and as hassle-free as possible. And we're looking for ways to unblock activation directly…

Hey best of luck with this! I would have loved something like this on my trip to India. To get anywhere and do anything required increasingly elaborate setups and even personal password sharing between myself and new inlaws that hardly knew me. A lot of time and money was wasted and somehow in the process I was banned from Uber for several months. I have the same advice for you I would give to basically every other b…

> It's so difficult to get around before you get some kind of digital payment setup.

FWIW your outside-of-India Uber account should Just Work™.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#72

Post by sudshekhar »

Yeul wrote: post #67

In the Netherlands we just let dumb foreigners use their creditcard instead of making things complicated for them. You'll be charged an arm and a leg for it though but if you stick to the approved tourist areas your Visacard will be accepted.

You can of course use your credit card / cash to make spends while travelling in India as well.

But UPI will feel more convenient. And it works everywhere.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#73

Post by shivekkhurana »

sudshekhar wrote: post #8
shivekkhurana wrote: post #3

HN is a global forum, and most people probably don't know about UPI. But this is amazing. Do you have a subscription service or do you charge a markup on forex deposits ? Also how did you build a legal structure to allow this ? Congrats on the launch. Wish you success :)

We're still playing with our pricing. 10$ joining fees and a 3.5% markup on adding funds is the current business plan. We'll observe customer usage over the next 3-6 months and figure out if fixed fee subscriptions can be cheaper. > Also how did you build a legal structure to allow this ? We've partnered with Transcorp International Limited to operate the Cheq app in India. They are an RBI approved AD2 and PPI licens…

3.5% is brutal. Wise is a near 0% solution, with just one time setup fee. I get the convenience aspect, but most people foreigners visit would accept a card (i guess?)

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#74

Post by shri_krishna »

sudshekhar wrote: post #50
jrumbut wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey best of luck with this! I would have loved something like this on my trip to India. To get anywhere and do anything required increasingly elaborate setups and even personal password sharing between myself and new inlaws that hardly knew me. A lot of time and money was wasted and somehow in the process I was banned from Uber for several months. I have the same advice for you I would give to basically every other b…

Thank you for the encouragement. I hope you get to use this app on your next visit. > charge a lot more and make it a lot more convenient. We're trying to introduce doorstep verification services. And establishing good unit economics is definitely our current biggest problem. 50$ will make our investors very happy but then customers might complain.

> 50$ will make our investors very happy but then customers might complain.

Look at the pain points of customers. It is obvious they are willing to pay higher price for convenience. Anyone visiting India would not complain about $50. Especially since you say it is a one time fee for opening the account. You need to rethink your price. You can even make it an annual fee so you have consistent revenue. The current pricing model is nuts. $10 is too cheap for foreigners.

EDIT: You write elsewhere that there is a markup of 3.5% on top per transaction. Is this credit card fees or your own markup on top of the credit card fees? If it is the latter, then I would advise you against it. Rather take 1 time payment annually ($50 or even $100) instead of 3.5% markup per transaction.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#75

Post by kmlx »

Yeul wrote: post #67

In the Netherlands we just let dumb foreigners use their creditcard instead of making things complicated for them. You'll be charged an arm and a leg for it though but if you stick to the approved tourist areas your Visacard will be accepted.

ignoring the tone of this comment, “charged an arm and a leg” = pennies. i guess pennies are now valuable in the netherlands?

in any case, the Dutch supermarket chain albert heijn still doesn’t accept any cards except some non starter locally developed ones.

i always found it interesting that the netherlands are so far behind places like the UK when it comes to payments. even countries in SE Europe have better payments infra than the Netherlands.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#76

Post by pmontra »

> The Cheq UPI app works ONLY in India and we must verify your passport in-person before activating the UPI wallet.

LOL, in person passport verification, really? No thanks. And even if that would be OK, where and when?

The bullet points suggest that there is no sensible way for a foreigner to pay in India so I just won't go to India. That said, paying cash is probably an experience not as bad as depicted. I've been to countries were the only option was bringing local currency either from home or from an exchange counter in the capital. Not much can be worse than that.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#77

Post by tyingq »

mortureb wrote: post #34
redindian75 wrote: post #33

I struggled a lot with this exact problem during my trip to India last year, so I am your perfect NRI customer. I don't have an Indian phone number, so GPay and PayTM were out of reach. So I had to use my parents' phone everywhere. This app is great for my next visit. However, in-person-branch-verification is a big non-starter for me. It needs to be more convenient than visiting a branch. If I have to visit a branch,…

Anything with in person anything is an immediate no go. Come on guys, find a way around this. There absolutely has to be a way to do this over the internet.

Finding a way to get a presence in the major airports would probably make it reasonable. Partnership with someone already there, like a currency exchange booth? Then, at some point, maybe there's enough volume to gain leverage with the bureaucrats to go all online.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#78

Post by pmontra »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #31

Excellent, and I love the idea. We (a community of 400+ founders in a small Bangalore community) were even discussing you guys a few days back. I have given this feedback earlier, too, but the copy sounds Ind-lish at most places. Your customers are going to be primarily non-Indian. It would be best to have a native speaker, such as an American, to review and re-write. I’m an Indian and have worked primarily with over…

I'm not an English native speaker. I didn't notice anything peculiar in that copy. Of course as non native speaker I lack the skills to notice any nuances but on the other side that means that it's OK for at least some of the potential customers. For native English speakers maybe you need some fixes that I can't see but would you sell the product by its convenience of by the copy?

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#79

Post by rusticpenn »

pmontra wrote: post #76

> The Cheq UPI app works ONLY in India and we must verify your passport in-person before activating the UPI wallet. LOL, in person passport verification, really? No thanks. And even if that would be OK, where and when? The bullet points suggest that there is no sensible way for a foreigner to pay in India so I just won't go to India. That said, paying cash is probably an experience not as bad as depicted. I've been t…

In mz last visit to India, there were places which refused to accept cash. onlz UPI.

Re: Show HN: Cheq UPI – India's first UPI payments app for foreigners

#80

Post by pmontra »

optimistprime wrote: post #27

Love the idea, but honestly it's too much friction to start using your product. Please consider in-app passport verification and wallet creation. Also the website does not seem to be well thought out - 1. No mention of how to use UPI or Cheq. 2. Where to go to get verified? 3. I could not find an ios app. Is there one coming soon? 4. Too many typos as others too have noted. "UPI wallet let’s you pay " <-- lets 5. Lot…

> Please consider in-app passport verification and wallet creation.

Definitely. And make it possible to do it from home before flying to India. Tourists have more time there than after landing into an airport and starting to move around the country, maybe even without spending a night in a hotel first.

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