Users Report UPI AutoPay Failures
Social media users are reporting escalating issues with UPI AutoPay, including mandates that are stuck during deletion and instances of duplicate deductions. One user noted a significant delay between cancelling an autopay and the service actually stopping, while another reported their investment being debited twice. The rising volume of complaints suggests a potential systemic problem with the recurring payment feature.
- The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched UPI AutoPay on July 22, 2020, to enable recurring payments for services like utility bills, subscriptions, and investments through the UPI framework. - Transaction limits for AutoPay have evolved; initially capped at ₹2,000, the Reserve Bank of India later raised the limit to ₹1 lakh for specific recurring payments, including mutual fund subscriptions and insurance premiums, without requiring a UPI PIN for each transaction. - The volume of recurring payments via UPI AutoPay has grown significantly, with transactions processed by the top 10 banks increasing from 530.5 million in November 2024 to 926 million in November 2025. - While systemic issues are reported, a high rate of failures is also attributed to user-side factors such as insufficient bank balance, incorrect UPI details, or expired mandates, with one analysis suggesting a success rate as low as 30% due to these behaviors. - To manage network congestion, NPCI has restricted the execution of AutoPay mandates to off-peak hours, specifically before 10 a.m., between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., and after 9:30 p.m. - In response to rising complaints and to increase transparency, NPCI recently launched a centralized portal, upihelp.npci.org.in, allowing users to track, manage, and get help with their active AutoPay mandates across all UPI apps. - The setup of a mandate requires a one-time UPI PIN authorization, and merchants are required to send a pre-debit notification to the user at least 24 hours before a scheduled payment is executed. - If an initial mandate execution fails, the system is allowed a maximum of three retry attempts to process the payment.
