Comment by vinay_ys | Hacker News Reader

Comment by vinay_ys | Hacker News Reader

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in India is a highly scalable (800million transactions per month) mobile payment method with 160+ banks participating with numerous mobile apps (example: Bhim, PhonePe) that is free of charge for merchant payments and up to 30 person to person payments per month. Subsequent P2P transactions are charged at flat ₹2.5 for < ₹1000 and ₹5 for greater than ₹1000 (highly unlikely anyone would cross the free quota per month and actually pay this fee).

Please see statistics published by various agencies: NPCI - National Payment Corporation of India is the organization responsible for administering UPI. https://www.npci.org.in/product-statistics/upi-product-stati...

RBI - Reserve Bank of India is the central/federal bank. https://rbi.org.in/scripts/Statistics.aspx

I don't think anyone needs Libra in India. Thank you.

Is it "free" from a customers's perspective, or from a merchant's perspective?

From a customer's perspective, credit cards are also "free". However, from a merchant's perspective, the cost is 2-3% plus a constant hassle with prospective fraud.

It's free from both perspectives. No additional overhead charges are levied.

I would like to send my friend in India $1 USD. Does Unified Payment Interface make this possible?

Traditional wire transfer certainly cannot, since the fees alone are many times larger than $1 USD.

My point is Libra isn't needed for person-to-person or person-to-merchant transfers within India.

The international small amount transfer use-case is extremely rare and unlikely to take-off because of Libra.

In any case, you seem to be assuming Libra won't charge forex fees for converting between Libra and fiat currency. They have not said so. It is very likely they will charge.

I don't see any reason why the banks involved in exchanging Libra with fiat currency to behave any differently than they do today. They will play with the buy/sell rates to make money on both sides of the trade.

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