UPI services will be unavailable for some users from April 1; check here

The National Payments Corporation of India will remove IDs and users with inactive mobile numbers will be unable to use online payment applications like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, etc

Starting April 1, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) IDs connected to inactive mobile numbers will be removed, according to a LiveMint report. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will remove these IDs and users with inactive mobile numbers will be unable to use online payment applications like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, etc.

 

Who will lose access?

Here’s a list of users who can be impacted by NPCI's latest announcement:

• Users who have changed their mobile numbers but have not updated it with their bank will lose access
• Those who have deactivated their mobile numbers without updating them with their banks
• UPI users with numbers reassigned to someone else are also at risk of losing access
• Inactive numbers which have not been used for services like calls, messaging, etc will also be removed

 

Here’s how you can avoid losing access to online payment apps:

• The report suggests that the users must ensure that their mobile numbers linked with the bank accounts are active. If not, the users should activate them.
• Users should try getting a new mobile number if any of their mobile numbers linked with the UPI ID is inactive.

 

Reasons behind NPCI’s latest move 

Citing security concerns, the NPCI has stated that the UPI IDs associated with the inactive mobile numbers are a ‘threat’. It said, many users who either change or deactivate their numbers, often forget to delete their UPI IDs, which could be misused by fraudsters in the future. This comes at a time when there is a significant rise in the number of scams where many people have been robbed of their money.

 

To overcome such a situation, NPCI has asked banks and payment apps to remove these inactive mobile numbers from their UPI network.

 

It has asked banks and payment apps to regularly monitor and remove mobile numbers that have been inactive, deactivated, or reassigned to someone else. Before cancelling the services, banks have been asked to send a notification to the users regarding the same. However, if the users fail to take the above-mentioned steps, the UPI ID will be removed to avoid the risk of fraud.