I was stood at a Chai stall with a warm (now going cold) cup of tea (\u00a320) in my hand and my phone at 6%\u00a0battery.<\/p>\n
He directed me to scan his QR code. I did so, entered my PIN, and it worked! Then about 2 seconds later, my phone\u00a0died.<\/p>\n
Then I thought, \u201cWhen did I stop using cash?\u201d I can\u2019t really tell you when I just stopped. It was just one of those\u00a0things.<\/p>\n
This is not a sponsored post. I\u2019m trying to figure out why I became a huge fan and why it really is so\u00a0good.<\/p>\n
Image Generated by\u00a0ChatGpt<\/p>\n
Speed<\/p>\n
Everybody says it\u2019s fast. Well\u2026 yes. Before UPI I used to do my net banking. I\u2019d often add my beneficiary and wait for activation. Sometimes it could take hours to activate. Other times it would just not go through and I would have to try\u00a0again.<\/p>\n
What changed was that I don\u2019t ever plan to pay. My landlord\/flatmate\/dad would say \u201csend it when you can.\u201d Since having UPI, there is no \u201cwhen you can,\u201d as it only takes 9\u00a0seconds.<\/p>\n
Small things but helps with how I pay for [rent\/bills\/etc]<\/p>\n
Made me stop hating small\u00a0payments<\/p>\n
Before we could pay for small things such as pens (\u00a310), parking (\u00a330), auto man\u00a0(\u00a315).<\/p>\n
With cash we would always get annoyed at these small payments. I\u2019d hand over my \u00a3100 note and he\u2019d moan. We\u2019d both do some maths. However with UPI there is no longer any of that. No one would have \u201cno change\u201d now. Seems silly but we had so many small arguments weekly.<\/p>\n
The veg\u00a0lady<\/p>\n
This one really got\u00a0me.<\/p>\n
The lady I buy my vegetables from in [area] would never have a card reader. Why would she? They can be costly; you need internet, and to her it wouldn\u2019t help. However, putting a printed QR code onto a steel box is\u00a0free!<\/p>\n
She says business is easier? She doesn\u2019t need to write things down in a book as much? Ask her. It only takes 30 seconds and will be the best paragraph of your\u00a0story.<\/p>\n
What I noticed was that she is now receiving her money into a bank account. Her payments are recorded. If she ever needs a loan, this can help her. However, with cash, there is no record, which is great for privacy but not great if she ever needs proof she\u2019s\u00a0working.<\/p>\n
No more issues with splitting bills<\/p>\n
We all know the issue with paying. \u201cI\u2019ll pay now, you send me later.\u201d They never send you. I\u2019ve lost real money from this. And a couple of my friendships have gone a bit chilly because of\u00a0\u00a3800.<\/p>\n
Now everyone pays their share. It\u2019s done before we even get our desserts. I\u2019d pay a fee for this feature. But I don\u2019t, so it\u2019s a bit\u00a0silly.<\/p>\n
Taught me a\u00a0lesson<\/p>\n
This was unexpected. One evening I was looking at my payment history and realised I\u2019d spent [real amount] on food deliveries just in one month. I didn\u2019t feel like I was spending that much. With cash, I would never know. But with UPI, I have the receipts, and they were embarrassing.<\/p>\n
This is a free budgeting lesson! However, most people won\u2019t look at the tab. I didn\u2019t for a\u00a0while.<\/p>\n
Drawbacks<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not perfect. I\u2019m not going to\u00a0lie.<\/p>\n
Sometimes payments don\u2019t go through. Sometimes you\u2019ll lose money from your account but the other person won\u2019t get it. You\u2019ll be refreshing your bank app like a fool. It will usually go back through but it feels like forever. I had this happen to me at [real\u00a0time].<\/p>\n
You can overspend easily. When it feels like nothing to pay you\u2019ll spend more. I know this about myself and I still\u00a0do.<\/p>\n
Scams. People will receive a collect request and agree to it. Think! You will never enter your PIN to receive money. If someone calls you saying they\u2019re from your bank and are in a rush, hang up. I have had 3 calls this year. If anything seems odd, report it to your bank immediately. If you\u2019ve lost any money, report it to the cybercrime helpline.<\/p>\n
If your phone dies and you have no cash, you\u2019re stuck. I now have a folded \u00a3100 note in my phone case. I\u2019ve had this for [amount of time] and have used it [number of times]. It\u2019s embarrassing but\u00a0works.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think UPI is magical. It\u2019s basic. Boring basic. But it mostly\u00a0works.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen my chai seller, veg lady and bike fixer on the highway all receive the same payment from the same phone. None of them needed teaching. This is rare. Most tech requires you to adapt. This just got out of the\u00a0way.<\/p>\n
Curious to know where the weirdest place you\u2019ve paid with UPI was. Mine was. Let me know\u00a0below!<\/p>\n
Nobody told me<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My cash would be ruined by\u00a0UPI I was stood at a Chai stall with a warm (now going cold) cup of tea (\u00a320) in my hand and my phone at 6%\u00a0battery. He directed me to scan his QR code. I did so, entered my PIN, and it worked! Then about 2 seconds later, my phone\u00a0died. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":251189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/251189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}