UPI AutoPay is a recurring payments solution launched by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) on 22 July 2020 as a part of UPI 2.0.
Currently, there are 4 PSPs and 37 banks that have the functionality live on their systems. The list includes PSPs such as Paytm, Bhim, PhonePe and banks such as SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Paytm Payments Bank, PNB and Kotak.
What is UPI AutoPay?
UPI is one of the most widely used payment sources in India. In August 2021, the payment source recorded 3.55 billion transactions amounting to over 6.39 lakh crores with a steady MoM growth rate of 9.47% and YoY growth rate of 119.64% in the number of transactions.
On the other hand, subscription-based business models are gaining popularity for offering the benefit of lower decline rates and increased timely repeat payments.
The UPI AutoPay feature will further boost the current growth trends seen by UPI as a payment source and recurring payments as a business model.
For the uninitiated, UPI AutoPay is a brilliant innovation by the NPCI that lets customers make recurring payments using a UPI-linked bank account.
It will allow your customers to enable auto-debit for any recurring payments done online.
With UPI AutoPay, customers will not have to enter the security pin for recurring payments of up to Rs. 5,000/-. For example, electricity bills, mobile bills, insurance premiums, mutual funds SIPs, home/vehicle EMI payments, etc. with an amount up to Rs. 5000/- can be paid automatically on a recurring basis.
UPI AutoPay is a boon to both customers and merchants. Customers can create UPI mandates instantly and get their recurring payments automatically deducted on the authorized date. On the other hand, businesses benefit from receiving timely payments from their customers.
How does UPI AutoPay work?
Since the launch of UPI AutoPay, major UPI applications have offered a ‘Mandate’ option. This option allows customers to create, approve, modify, pause or revoke an auto-debit mandate. Explained below are the steps involved in using UPI AutoPay:
- The customer chooses a subscription plan.
- The customer approves a transaction via a UPI PIN. (This is a one-time activity for authenticating a transaction.)
- Recurring payments are deducted in a completely automated manner not requiring any further action from the customer
- Customers have the flexibility to pause or revoke the mandates at any point in time via the UPI app.
Your customers can set mandates for recurring payments of daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, yearly or as-presented frequency.
Benefits of UPI AutoPay
UPI Autopay is beneficial to users as it is a convenient and safe way of making recurring payments. Here are some of the benefits UPI AutoPay offers:
- Payments can be automated easily from the existing UPI account on the UPI AutoPay-enabled app.
- Customers can set recurring payments of amounts from Rs. 1 to Rs. 5000.
- Businesses can offer different plans and even custom plans of varying frequencies & amounts (fixed or variable) according to customer requirements.
- Offer a secure and hassle-free way of initiating recurring payments.
- Setting mandates do not require documentation or paperwork.
- Timely payments eliminate the possibility of late fees and penalties, which is essential for any business.
- Offers key features like Modify/Revoke/Pause to the customers after creating a mandate whenever required.
- Enable an improved shopping experience for online customers while eliminating the need to go out in the crowd.
How businesses can enable UPI AutoPay with Paytm Subscriptions?
Paytm has added UPI-linked bank accounts as a payment source on its recurring payments solution – Paytm Subscriptions.
For existing Paytm Subscriptions users, we can enable UPI AutoPay via a simple API integration directly on their existing merchant accounts. You can write to us at payments.helpdesk@paytm.com.
Also Read: Leverage UPI Payment Gateway for Your Online Business with Paytm
Once you have enabled Paytm Subscription into your business website/app, you need to:
1. Create Subscription
You first need to create a subscription plan and offer your customers the option to pay at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, or yearly) in exchange for regular access to a product/service.
This plan should include and must display the following details to the customer on your app or website:
- Amount/Max Amount
- Frequency
- Start & End Date
2. Activate Subscription
Once the business creates a subscription plan and the customer selects it, they choose a payment instrument. Post this, Paytm seeks a one-time consent from customers to:
- To make the first payment.
- To make all future payments automatically from the selected payment instrument as per the subscription plan specified while creating the subscription plan.
Once the subscription plan is authorized and the first payment is deducted, it moves to the ‘Active’ state. It means that the business can start collecting payments against the plan created.
In other words, the transaction amount associated with a chosen subscription plan gets deducted from the payment method selected by the customer at set periodic intervals towards the regular purchases.
3. Collect Payments
Once the subscription plan is active, you can send a payment request to a customer on/before the due date.
As long as the payment request is valid as per the chosen subscription plan, Paytm will process the payment and confirm with the customer once their linked payment instrument is charged.
Choose a payment flow that’s best for your business
To help businesses deliver a frictionless payment experience to their customers, we are offering three intuitive UPI flows:
1. UPI Intent:
This UPI payment flow allows customers to pay directly via any of the UPI apps downloaded on their smartphone and does not require them to juggle between the merchant app, UPI app, and SMS.
2. UPI InApp:
It displays UPI-associated bank accounts of customers directly on the merchant app, thereby offering an enhanced payment experience.
3. UPI Collect:
It makes accepting recurring online payments quick, easy, and more secure by encouraging customers to enter their preferred VPA addresses.
Four ways your business will benefit from Paytm Subscription
- Paytm Subscriptions provides a platform with the widest range of payment options and the most flexibility to support your complex business needs.
- It is available in quick and deep integration modes for merchants to design their payment experience as per their requirements.
- Our subscriptions offering supports fixed/variable amount subscription with a defined frequency (such as daily, weekly, monthly, etc. as well as on-demand frequencies)
- In the case of fixed amount subscriptions at a set schedule, Paytm can also enable the automatic collection of recurring payments on your behalf, making the process completely automated.
Also Read: Leverage Paytm Subscription Links to Improve Business ROI
Backed by the powerful Paytm Subscriptions solution, UPI AutoPay is easy to integrate and offers a host of features that make it one of the most intelligent recurring payments solutions out there.
If you are a new small and medium-sized business looking to take your subscription offering to the market, you can enable UPI AutoPay with Paytm Subscription by simply writing to us at payments.helpdesk@paytm.com.
So, what are you waiting for? Enable UPI AutoPay on Paytm Subscriptions today!
