PhonePe Introduces UPI Circle for Secure, Controlled Payments by Secondary Users Without Bank Accounts

PhonePe recently introduced a new tool called UPI Circle, which aims to make digital payments more accessible and controllable. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) developed UPI Circle, which allows a primary user to enable secondary users—such as family members or friends—to make UPI payments even if they do not have a bank account.

The service is currently being rolled out across India to PhonePe subscribers.The primary user creates the circle and produces individual UPI IDs for up to five secondary users.These users can use their UPI IDs to pay bills, purchase online, and make other payments through the principal user's bank account.

PhonePe provides two control options for managing secondary users:

• Partial Delegation: The primary user is prompted to approve each transaction.
• Full Delegation: The principal user establishes a monthly spending limit (up to ₹15,000), allowing secondary users to spend freely without approval.  However, there is a transaction cap of ₹5,000.

Primary users can observe all transactions, change limits, and alter access at any moment. Each secondary user can have a unique spending restriction and can only be associated with one primary user.

While Google Pay revealed support for UPI Circle in August 2024, the feature has not yet become generally available. The BHIM app also supports UPI Circle, giving consumers more ways to try out this new feature.

This article is based on information from Gadgets360