Others have the system but is it as good and seamless as the Indian one?
In US NFC is best and seamless since most people have high end phones. In India maybe UPI with QR code is better solution since you only need phone with a camera.
Most growth in payments is either new markets or markets that grow a lot, but not completion of rather mature markets (and additional services).
1: You follow a link on your phone that opens the app, you're prompted with the transaction sum and then sign with a code on the phone and done.
2: You scan a QR code (from sign or screen), opens a prompt in app for the sum, sign and done
3: Person-to-person, you enter their phone number(often from the phone book), amount and message, sign and done.
The signing is done via the standard app that's also used to login to the tax-office,etc so the entire population has it.
1. A 100x higher volume on a normal day.
2. A highly effective and equitable system that somehow managed to succeed in one of the most corrupt and beauracratic nations.
3. The majority of its users can barely read, if at all. Not to mention all the languages involved.
UPI is impressive because it actually made a difference in the lives of the poor. Probably the first piece of internet technology to have a measurable effect on the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
So yeah the case sounds rested in my perspective.
EDIT: also sounds like Swish charges a fee to the banks? Sounds a bit outrageous for a payment system trying to be the best in the world to charge a fee.
FWIW, NPCI charges all banks for UPI too. They’ve been eating most of those costs because the government didn’t allow them to charge (now those charges are slowly coming in). Banks haven’t been happy with the zero MDR regime for UPI.
Doesn’t apply for transactions less than ₹2000 ($24 usd). Might sound like a small amount but most Indian transactions won’t cross that. And the fee doesn’t apply to p2p anyway.
Nr 2 though is something that I think might be a reverse though, looking globally mobile payments seems to have been a hit in markets with less well functioning traditional money and credit/debit card markets.
In Sweden cards's (most often debit) with tap-to-pay still rules for most b2c cases like established restaurants, stores and anything with slightly higher value. Swish was mostly started out to facilitate non-commercial person-to-person cases but has now displaced most lower value cash usage (person to person, small vendors, temporary venues).
I frankly don't even know if I have physical money in my wallet anymore since.. well I've not used physical money in a couple of years now iirc.
UPI is directly connected to your bank account. It does not go through VISA, Mastercard or whatever.
With credit card, it isn't my money for a month until I have to make the payment. If there is a problem, I can chargeback. The possibility of chargeback makes the vendor's support more helpful
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.
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).
No, because after a month, there will be an automatic payment from my bank for the balance. In that time, the bank is giving me their money and they’re on the hook for any fraud.
i understand where the confusion comes from. i use the term “credit card” generically for debit and credit cards. sorry for the confusion.
You are taking debt whenever you use credit card. If you miss/forget payment, some tech fault or sometimes just because you can be charged hefty interest or charges.
You can keep a separate account for your daily transactions.
most people i know have debit cards.
In my experience paying with credit is a fire and forget action, since the money is debited automatically at the end of the month, with no interest. The UX is great, since it only takes a card swipe [as long as I have the funds to pay it back and I'm within my credit limit].
In an scenario where you are not debited right away, I agree completely. But I would only expect that to happen by accident or if the user lacks the financial literacy to understand there are better ways to buy whatever they want. I may be missing some financial corner cases.
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.