New feature makes UPI payments a breeze

Banks are working towards making UPI (unified payments interface) transactions easy as a breeze. Three banks—ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Airtel Payments Bank—have launched the 'Pay to Contact' or 'Pay your Contact' feature, which makes mobile payments more convenient than ever.

The sender must open the bank's app and first click on the option "Pay to Contact". It will open the user's mobile phonebook. The user can then select the contact to whom he/she wants to transfer money.

On doing this, the bank's app will automatically detect the contact's UPI address, provided he/she has one. All that sender has to do now is check the UPI address, enter the amount, key in the password, and transfer.

In the case of Kotak Mahindra Bank, the user can also see the app which the receiver is using.

The person receiving the fund could be on any app—PhonePe, G-Pay, or Paytm. The bank's app will detect the UPI address on its own.

National Payments Corporation of India was launched to make fund transfer and payments easier. The platform did away with the hassle of entering bank account numbers and IFSC codes. The sender had to enter an email-like address (Virtual Payment Address or VPA) of the person to whom money had to be sent.

Apps that focus on mobile payments made money transfers more convenient. If you and your contact use the same, you can transfer funds based on the receiver's mobile number. So, you can send money from your G-Pay to another person using G-Pay without entering UPI ID.

Banks have now taken it to the next level of convenience with the 'Pay to Contact' feature.

According to Kotak Mahindra Bank's website, an individual can transact up to 10 times and with a total value of up to ₹50,000 per day using the 'Pay your Contact' feature.

According to ICICI Bank's website, a user can make UPI transactions of up to ₹1 lakh a day and a maximum of 10 transactions within 24 hours.

Do you have personal finance queries? Send them to mintmoney@livemint.com and get them answered by industry experts.