Recurring payments are nothing but the subscriptions that you as a business or service provider collect from your customers on a timely basis (daily/ weekly/ monthly or yearly). This can be monthly school fees, gym membership fees, insurance premiums, SAAS & OTT subscriptions, EMI payments, etc.
From the day the first transaction was initiated, UPI transactions volume has grown by leaps and bounds. Having recorded close to 2 billion transactions in October 2020, NPCI is about to mark the 2X year-on-year growth for UPI payments. After seeing the rapid rise in UPI adoption in such a short time period, NPCI announced UPI AutoPay feature during the Global FinTech Fest 2020. It is widely accepted as the best method to collect recurring payments as it provides a much better user experience & transparency to the customers.
What is UPI AutoPay?
UPI AutoPay is a feature that allows customers to do recurring payments using any UPI application. Customers can now enable e-mandate for recurring payments, such as mobile bills, electricity bills, EMI payments, entertainment/OTT subscriptions, insurance, mutual funds, among others.
Until recently, you as a customer could only use credit cards to make recurring payments. While you could use debit cards earlier, RBI recently put that facility on hold due to security issues & fraud cases. The auto-debit feature by UPI will empower customers to do away with payment authentication time & again.
In the realm of small business banking, Open is the first to roll out UPI AutoPay feature to its users. Recurring payments turned out to be the biggest pain point for small businesses due to continuous lockdowns that happened due to the spread of COVID. Merchants had a tough time collecting subscriptions due to social distancing and movement restrictions. Enabling this feature will help small businesses automate their payment collections so that they can stay safe & focus on their business.
UPI AutoPay helps businesses as they can generate mandate instantly and send it to customers for authorization. Once the customer approves it, a fixed amount gets deducted automatically on the authorized date.
What are the benefits of UPI AutoPay?
UPI AutoPay will empower users by providing them with a comfortable and secure way of making recurring payments. Here are some main benefits of this feature:
- Recurring payments get activated with a onetime authorization
- Real-time mandate confirmation
- Grow your customer base
- Lower chargebacks due to complete transparency
- Better success rates
- Timely payments
Where All can one use UPI AutoPay?
With this new facility of UPI AutoPay, customers can use UPI applications for automating recurring payments such as subscriptions, fee collections, collecting donations, etc. If you’re a business owner, you can now set up customised plans like:
- SAAS Subscriptions Fees
- School Fees & Gym Membership Fees
- Getting donations from NGO
- Premium collections for mutual funds & insurances
- EMI collections for e-commerce companies
The Indian subscription market is currently at an aggressive growth stage. Introduction of new features like UPI AutoPay will make companies agile & efficient – allowing them to attract, package, price, sell and bill seamlessly & faster.
This is a win-win for both businesses and their customers.
To read more about how UPI AutoPay allows you to accept online recurring payments, click here.
