UPI 'collect requests' to end from October: here's how it changes payments

UPI New Rule form October: From October 1, you won't be able to send UPI collect requests to friends or family. Here's why NPCI is stopping the feature and what it means for your day-to-day payments.

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From October 1, 2025, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will discontinue the ‘collect request’ feature for peer-to-peer (P2P) Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. The move aims to plug rising cases of fraud and misuse.

 

What is changing?  UPI new rule-

The ‘collect request’ feature allows UPI users to send a payment request to another person, say, to split a dinner bill or remind a friend to return borrowed money. The recipient can accept or decline the request.

 

While designed for convenience, this feature has increasingly been exploited by fraudsters, often targeting unsuspecting users into approving bogus payment requests. From October, no P2P collect requests will be allowed.

 

NPCI has instructed all banks, payment service providers (PSPs), and third-party UPI apps to update their systems to block such requests. The directive states that no P2P collect transaction should be “initiated, routed or processed” after 2 October 2025.

 

What you can still do

 

This ban applies only to P2P collect requests, not to normal UPI payments. You can continue to:

 

-Send money to friends or family by entering their UPI ID or scanning a QR code.

 

-Make payments to merchants or verified businesses through UPI.

 

Previously, NPCI had capped P2P collect requests at Rs 2,000 per transaction, while verified merchants could raise higher-value collect requests.

 

Why it matters for users

The change is expected to make UPI safer for individuals by removing a common fraud vector. However, it will also mean losing a convenient tool for requesting money from contacts. Users will need to rely on sending payment links, QR codes, or simply requesting funds through messaging apps.

   

For most users, it means adjusting to a slightly less convenient but more secure UPI experience, one where vigilance remains the best protection against fraud.