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UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

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Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#211
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This exists in India too. But people don't use it. Why take on debt if you don't need to? UPI is directly connected to your bank account. It does not go through VISA, Mastercard or whatever.

> UPI is directly connected to your bank account. It does not go through VISA, Mastercard or whatever. This is technically incorrect. UPI is connected to NPCI, which runs the platform and charges the participating banks for this service. Same for RuPay cards by NPCI.

The NPCI is nothing like VISA or Mastercard. And you are right pointing this out is only a technicality.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#212
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This exists in India too. But people don't use it. Why take on debt if you don't need to? UPI is directly connected to your bank account. It does not go through VISA, Mastercard or whatever.

Not sure it qualifies as debt. It's just an agreement with your bank to give them that money in a few weeks / days. And if you commit to spending some small amount per year with your card (usually something like $1500), the bank will offer you some nice perks on their products that you don't get by using other payment methods. If you use something like UPI and you are making some kind of deal with your bank, you are…

Credit card annual interest rates can be as high as (or even higher than) 50%. This is not trivial, it can (and does) ruin lives. It is a type of debt (though conditional).

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#213

I’ve been using UPI since its very early days when it used to fail quite often. UPI is still one of the best things to happen in the financial scene in India. However, these days, personally, I’m trying to reduce it to either known people, or established institutions. I wish there is another layer of tokenization when one pays via UPI, like how Apple Pay does. I wish that the transaction is obfuscated and the phone n…

>There is a scam going on in India. Random females, who are either naked or scantily clothed, will call up on WhatsApp Video. If you pick up the call, say while in the bathroom and not fully clothed, they will take screenshots and threaten you that they will make that picture “viral” to extort money.

This is baffling. First, how much % of the day do you spend naked? 1-2%? So the success rate of any given call is going to be 1-2% at most, given that otherwise theres nothing scandalous to post. Second, do people just instinctively accept video calls, while they're naked? That seems very unlikely to me.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#214
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was in India earlier this year, and found there was no way (and I spent hours trying) for a foreigner to get access to the UPI system. never been to India. do they not support credit cards like the rest of the planet? visa/mastercard/amex? only UPI?

They accept credit cards in most well to do stores. However street side shops probably do not. Most business avoid it due to the fee. UPI has them hooked with no-fee right now but fees are expected in the future. But right now, they have a no-fee option which is better than mc/visa/amex.

thanks for the comment. yeah, i expected as much.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#215

I was in India earlier this year, and found there was no way (and I spent hours trying) for a foreigner to get access to the UPI system. This meant: 1) There were some cashless fast food outlets that I couldn't eat at 2) There was no way for me to book an intercity bus ticket I eventually managed to get a bus ticket by sweet-talking someone in a shop to use their personal UPI account in exchange for cash. I fear ther…

When I moved to Sweden I had the same issues because of a dependency on Swish and BankID (and personal ID numbers). It can be a real pain for things when you’re staying a little longer than a weekend and want to go to a gym for example. I went to one cafe where I literally had no way to pay as a foreigner

A normal European debit card works everywhere. Cash-only establishments are uncommon. With that said I don't know how complicated the procedure is for a non-EU citizen to get a bank account (and with that a normal debit card) after moving to Sweden and having obtained a permit for residency. For EU citizens it's not a hassle.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#216
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the rest of the planet" doesnt accept visa/Mastercard just anywhere most of the developed world does. even Eastern Europe have transformed themselves into a NFC bonanza. > The Netherlands the netherlands is the wrong example. it has always been an outlier when it comes to card payments. case in point: you can't even make a Visa/Mastercard payment in an AH supermarket, you need a Maestro card. > The world is not the…

Visa/Mastercard aren’t as ubiquitous as people imagine, despite Visa/Mastercard trying to acquire their way to global market dominance. The are many developed and developing countries that operate their own card networks, peer-to-peer payment technologies, and generally cheaper faster alternatives to Mastercard/Visa, with many merchants preferring them to their U.S. counterparts. Visa/Mastercard may have dominance in…

> In reality alternatives like UPI and other peer-to-peer systems are more likely to be the payment systems of the future.

i find that very hard to believe as the user interaction for qr codes is a step backwards from using an nfc with a phone’s wallet. and once you use the nfc solution it’s very hard to switch back to a system that is less friendly.

of course, if you take the QR codes out of the equation and replace with NFC then i see no issues.

> Continued Mastercard/Visa dominance in its current form only really makes sense in countries with outdated and inadequate banking infrastructure, like the U.S.

you are wrong. if anything the system is getting more widely used. europe for example has very advanced banking infra and is all in on nfc, with mastercard/visa/amex widely accepted, and the system is being adopted everywhere.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#217
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the rest of the planet" doesnt accept visa/Mastercard just anywhere most of the developed world does. even Eastern Europe have transformed themselves into a NFC bonanza. > The Netherlands the netherlands is the wrong example. it has always been an outlier when it comes to card payments. case in point: you can't even make a Visa/Mastercard payment in an AH supermarket, you need a Maestro card. > The world is not the…

Germany is another outlier. Mainly big chains will accept amex, and small places might not accept credit cards in general, though that has been getting better thanks to SumUp.

yes, germany loves cash. always has.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#218
post #213

I’ve been using UPI since its very early days when it used to fail quite often. UPI is still one of the best things to happen in the financial scene in India. However, these days, personally, I’m trying to reduce it to either known people, or established institutions. I wish there is another layer of tokenization when one pays via UPI, like how Apple Pay does. I wish that the transaction is obfuscated and the phone n…

>There is a scam going on in India. Random females, who are either naked or scantily clothed, will call up on WhatsApp Video. If you pick up the call, say while in the bathroom and not fully clothed, they will take screenshots and threaten you that they will make that picture “viral” to extort money. This is baffling. First, how much % of the day do you spend naked? 1-2%? So the success rate of any given call is goin…

The receiver don't have to be naked. So, here is the story that got me to look into this a bit to learn what was happening. Father-in-law don't keep all the phone numbers updated, so, he picks up all calls -- mostly video calls from his kids and grandkids.

One day, he picked up a WhatsApp Video, where the woman on the other end was pretty much naked. Father-in-law was in the couch and gave the phone to my wife, asking who is on the other end. After some verbal exchanges to stop calling us; a barrage of WhatsApp message began -- screenshots of a semi naked women and father-in-law on a video chat.

I ignored the first time wife complained. By the 3rd, or so message, I called up a friend to give them a casual call and let them know who he was. Yeah! This whole scamming to get people's picture in phone screenshots getting "viral" seems to be a common scam in India.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#219
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why take on debt if you don't need to? what debt? > UPI is directly connected to your bank account. oh, then it's a hard pass from me. i do not connect anything to my bank account and keep cards in separate banks for security.

Withdrawing money from a credit card is taking on debt. Credit and debt are related concepts. Ask yourself this will you have to eventually pay interest on the borrowed money or not? You can have other (non credit, say savings) bank accounts for security too. It's just as easy (or easier) as getting a credit card here (in India).

> Withdrawing money from a credit card is taking on debt.

i understand where the confusion comes from. i use the term “credit card” generically for debit and credit cards. sorry for the confusion.

Re: UPI Payments: 10B transactions a month done, next stop 100B

#220
post #213

I’ve been using UPI since its very early days when it used to fail quite often. UPI is still one of the best things to happen in the financial scene in India. However, these days, personally, I’m trying to reduce it to either known people, or established institutions. I wish there is another layer of tokenization when one pays via UPI, like how Apple Pay does. I wish that the transaction is obfuscated and the phone n…

>There is a scam going on in India. Random females, who are either naked or scantily clothed, will call up on WhatsApp Video. If you pick up the call, say while in the bathroom and not fully clothed, they will take screenshots and threaten you that they will make that picture “viral” to extort money. This is baffling. First, how much % of the day do you spend naked? 1-2%? So the success rate of any given call is goin…

> So the success rate of any given call is going to be 1-2% at most, given that otherwise theres nothing scandalous to post

OP didn't mention it explicitly, however, chatting with a scantily clad person on the other end can be used as blackmail material too no matter what state of dress you are in.

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