If Sunita Williams could send her Diwali greeting from International Space Station, why financial transactions to India could not be easier and faster for NRIs?
The government of India has amplified the UPI technology to facilitate the money transfer process for 36-million Indian-origin expats who make the world’s largest ethnic diaspora. With the UPI access extended to NRIs, NRE and NRO accountholders can send money to India and make transactions when in India instantly and securely through their smartphones. Unlike traditional wire transfers, the UPI-enabled transactions will incur no charges to them.
PC: Travel Beats (NRI community portal by IndianEagle.com)
Who are eligible for UPI-enabled no-fee transactions?
NRIs, PIOs, and OCI cardholders from the USA, the UK, Canada, the UAE, Singapore, Australia, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, France, and Hong Kong are eligible for UPI-supported transactions to and in India. It is subject to their fulfilment of certain criteria. If you are a person of Indian origin residing in any of the aforementioned countries, you should have an NRE or NRO account linked to your international mobile number.
The linking of your international mobile number to any of the below listed UPI apps or the banks that sync with UPI apps makes you eligible for instant UPI payments. Federal Bank’s FedMobile, ICICI Bank’s iMobile, IndusInd Bank’s BHIM Indus Pay, AU Small Finance Bank’s BHIM AU, South Indian Bank’s SIB Mirror, and PhonePe are the UPI-powered apps that can be linked to international mobile numbers.
How to set up UPI for instant money transfer?
The very first step is to ensure that your international mobile number is linked to your NRE or NRO bank account. Installing a UPI app from the abovementioned list is the second step. The next step is the onboarding process, which entails seamless verification of your mobile number, selection of your bank account, and creation of a unique UPI ID or virtual payment address (VPA). It is that simple!
List of banks that support UPI payments by NRIs
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, Federal Bank, IDFC First, South Indian Bank, Equitas Small Finance, City Union Bank, IndusInd, Punjab National Bank, and DSB Bank are the banks that support linking of international mobile numbers to UPI.
What is the limit for daily UPI payments for NRIs?
NRIs can make UPI transactions up to Rs 1 lakh per day; however, the limit varies from bank to bank. UPI payments cannot exceed Rs 5000 for the first 24 hours from the time of your new UPI ID activation.
“You don’t need to carry dollars, pounds, euros, or dirhams from your country of residence or naturalized citizenship to India any more, as you can make UPI payments from your smartphones without incurring charges when in India. You can save not only on financial transactions through UPI but also get a discount of USD 25 on flight tickets to India from USA,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.
we need to make a note of one other point. we need to set up a UPI pin for which we also need debit/credit card details for any money transfer. this is the key in addition to NRE/NRO bank account and registered mobile no.
rest assured this service is super helpful for cashless transactions during India visit. However to activate UPI International for transactions outside India enabled countries that seems to be not working on Phonepe app. it keeps spinning to activate forever.