WhatsApp Pay is an in-chat system which will allow users to chat with other people and with that make payments as well. The National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) which regulates all the digital retail financial transactions in the country has finally allowed WhatsApp Pay to become a reality for the Indian users. Now WhatsApp can rollout out its payment feature for the Indian users, but there is a limit imposed. The social media giant is only allowed to roll-out this feature to a maximum of 20 million users initially. More details on the story ahead.
WhatsApp Pay Might Give Tough Competition to Other UPI Platforms
The user limit for WhatsApp Pay has been capped at 20 million users initially by the regulator. Adding to this, NCPI announced recently that no User Payments Interface (UPI) platform such as Google Pay, Paytm UPI, and PhonePe will be allowed to carry out more than 30% of the total transactions which take place in the country. This order will be imposed from January 2021.
The new regulation by NCPI is likely to affect PhonePe and Google Pay, the two biggest UPI platforms in the country. WhatsApp Pay was supposed to launch in the country much earlier, but the social media giant just couldn’t seem to get permission from the regulator to start its services.
Many feared about the unfair advantage that WhatsApp Pay would have had because of the 400 million users of the platform. But now that worry has been put to rest since WhatsApp Pay can’t have more than 20 million users to start with.
According to a blog release from WhatsApp, “Starting today, people across India will be able to send money through WhatsApp. This secure payments experience makes transferring money just as easy as sending a message. People can safely send money to a family member or share the cost of goods from a distance without having to exchange cash in person or going to a local bank.”
WhatsApp Pay is now available for the users running the latest version of Android or iOS in the country. Also, to send money through WhatsApp Pay, the users must have a bank account with a debit card in India.
How You Can Setup WhatsApp Pay for Your Device?
To set up WhatsApp Pay for your device, simply open the app, go to the action overflow menu which is the three dots on the top right corner of your screen and hit on the ‘Payments’ button. Then select ‘Add new payment method’ and ‘Accept and continue’. After that, you can select and add your bank account. This account should ideally be your primary UPI account. Post that, you will need to verify your number via an SMS. Hit on the ‘Allow’ button to let the verification start. Select the bank account associated with your number and hit on the ‘Done’ option to complete the process.
Then to send any contact money, just select the chat of that particular contact and select the clip icon located below on the screen. There you will get the ‘Payment’ option, choose that. Then enter the amount you want to send and enter your UPI pin when prompted. If you entered the right pin, you will get a confirmation message for the completion of the transaction.
