‘Shifting in the direction of money once more?’ UPI down in India for third time inside a month – Firstpost

India’s Unified Funds Interface (UPI), one of many world’s quickest cost methods, confronted one other main outage on Saturday (April 12), marking third such disruption inside a month.

Downdetector confirmed customers reporting the outage beginning 11:26 am IST. A number of customers additionally took to X and Fb to share their frustration as their transactions collapsed mid-way on cost platforms akin to PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.

UPI-maker the Nationwide Funds Company of India (NPCI) later acknowledged the stories and cited “intermittent technical points” for the outage. In its assertion, the NPCI stated it was working to resolve the problem.

“NPCI is presently dealing with intermittent technical points, resulting in partial UPI transaction declines. We’re working to resolve the problem, and can preserve you up to date,” the regulator stated.

The Saturday outage is believed to have brought on disruptions to companies of main banks like HDFC Financial institution, State Financial institution of India, Financial institution of Baroda, and Kotak Mahindra Financial institution.

Earlier UPI disruptions

The UPI was hit by a serious snag on March 26 because the customers nationwide confronted issues finishing their transactions.

The NPCI in a press release later stated, “NPCI had confronted intermittent technical points owing to which UPI had partial decline. The identical has been addressed now and the system has stabilised. Remorse the inconvenience.”

The second such outage was noticed on April 2.

Why is UPI vital?

In response to a report by digital funds firm Phi Commerce, UPI now accounts for 65 per cent of all digital transactions in India — making it a real game-changer on this planet of funds.

Whereas UPI is the go-to choice for small to medium purchases (like tea, groceries, or your go-to road momo man), bank cards and EMIs are nonetheless in style for big-ticket bills.

The report additionally highlights that folks lean closely on credit score throughout sure occasions — like festive seasons, college admission months, or when huge gross sales pop up.

Furious customers stated the frequent service disruption was inflicting an enormous headache to companies in addition to customers.

“The way in which they’re treating upi and holding it down at random hours is getting actually scary day-to-day. Affecting many small scale companies and retailers. Are we shifting in the direction of money once more?” wrote one person.

The way in which they’re treating upi and holding it down at random hours is getting actually scary day-to-day. Affecting many small scale companies and retailers. Are we shifting in the direction of money once more?

— Chirag Barjatya (@chiragbarjatyaa) April 12, 2025

“Simply completed lunch like a boss however once I tried paying by way of UPI—growth! Server down. Now I’m simply sitting in resort like a wished prison full abdomen however cooked RIP to me!” a second stated.

A 3rd questioned: “This by no means occurred for thus a few years. Is that this a technique to introduce some form of cost for making UPI funds in future?”