phonepe problem - txn completed after 4 days

[ltf4ever]

I used to face this issue with gpay earlier so I had shifted to phonepe, but after using it for 2 years, now I faced this issue on phonepe too:

I paid uber driver via phonepe UPI, and I got an sms saying amount debited from my bank.
but in phonepe, the status showed that it is processing, receiver bank has received the funds and it will take 2 days to complete.

the driver started asking for cash, and luckily I had sufficient cash on me.

4 days later, I get success message from phonepe. I had to call the driver again to refund me the money and luckily he did return it to me.

need suggestions from community members to avoid such situations.

would upi lite payments eliminate this problem?
and which are the apps that are better than phonepe for UPI success rate? I am not concerned about rewards for UPI txn, just success rate.

 

[provost]

There is no sureshot way to avoid this. There are two kinds of merchants:

1. P2M - Your usual merchants which have soundboxes, accept wallet based payments. Try and use the same app as QR acquirer. They have auto-failure logics so if it goes into pending, they will fail the txn and when it goes to success, they will refund. Sometimes, they show success even when it is pending and if it fails, they take the burn.

2. P2PM: Think of this as similar to showing your own QR to anyone else. Although there is usually no auto-failure logic here but app like PhonePe atleast stop you from making a payment if there is a high risk of it going into pending.

In a UPI payment, pendency happens because of receiver's bank. The bank usually is latent or facing downtime. You don't have much recourse to recover the money here.

 

[VISHESH_BANSAL]

I used to face this issue with gpay earlier so I had shifted to phonepe, but after using it for 2 years, now I faced this issue on phonepe too:

I paid uber driver via phonepe UPI, and I got an sms saying amount debited from my bank.
but in phonepe, the status showed that it is processing, receiver bank has received the funds and it will take 2 days to complete.

the driver started asking for cash, and luckily I had sufficient cash on me.

4 days later, I get success message from phonepe. I had to call the driver again to refund me the money and luckily he did return it to me.

need suggestions from community members to avoid such situations.

would upi lite payments eliminate this problem?
and which are the apps that are better than phonepe for UPI success rate? I am not concerned about rewards for UPI txn, just success rate.

That is why I always use Banks Own Banking App for UPI txns or Only BHIM App.

 

[sxchzy]

in uber to avoid this buy gift card and load your wallet
or add money to paytm wallet and let it get debited from there

 

[ltf4ever]

in uber to avoid this buy gift card and load your wallet
or add money to paytm wallet and let it get debited from there

I would prefer online payment modes only, but absolutely no driver accepts my ride if they come to know that it is online payment.

In a UPI payment, pendency happens because of receiver's bank. The bank usually is latent or facing downtime. You don't have much recourse to recover the money here.

so in this case even UPI lite won't help right? since the problem is at receiver's bank?

 

[sxchzy]

I would prefer online payment modes only, but absolutely no driver accepts my ride if they come to know that it is online payment.


so in this case even UPI lite won't help right? since the problem is at receiver's bank?

shift to other apps like rapido,ola

 

[Strange]

need suggestions from community members to avoid such situations.

In my experience, Paytm app is the best app for UPI transactions. If you have Paytm Bank account then use it in Paytm app for seamless UPI transactions.

 

[souvikr]

I used to face this issue with gpay earlier so I had shifted to phonepe, but after using it for 2 years, now I faced this issue on phonepe too:

I paid uber driver via phonepe UPI, and I got an sms saying amount debited from my bank.
but in phonepe, the status showed that it is processing, receiver bank has received the funds and it will take 2 days to complete.

the driver started asking for cash, and luckily I had sufficient cash on me.

4 days later, I get success message from phonepe. I had to call the driver again to refund me the money and luckily he did return it to me.

need suggestions from community members to avoid such situations.

would upi lite payments eliminate this problem?
and which are the apps that are better than phonepe for UPI success rate? I am not concerned about rewards for UPI txn, just success rate.

In Uber/Ola you can link your credit card to avoid such problems. If you select credit card as payment method you don't need to pay immediately when trip ends, you can pay anytime before taking next ride.

 

[Strange]

In Uber/Ola you can link your credit card to avoid such problems. If you select credit card as payment method you don't need to pay immediately when trip ends, you can pay anytime before taking next ride.

Now, Uber is asking to pay first before booking a ride using CC/DC, better use upi id in uber to pay after completing the ride.

 

[souvikr]

Now, Uber is asking to pay first before booking a ride using CC/DC, better use upi id in uber to pay after completing the ride.

If don't see any issue in paying before ride. Usually payment is asked for after driver accepts the ride. I am sure the money will be refunded if the ride is cancelled by driver.

 

[Strange]

I am sure the money will be refunded

in a week.

 

[souvikr]

in a week.

Not an issue for me atleast. Afterall it's bank's money stuck, not mine 😃

 

[Strange]

Not an issue for me atleast. Afterall it's bank's money stuck, not mine 😃

or use upi id.

 

[souvikr]

or use upi id.

I avoid upi because I get 5% cashback though sbi cashback. Also I don't want to face the situation like trip is completed and then payment is not working. This situation would be more stressful for me compared to waiting for 7 days for refund.

 

[Strange]

I avoid upi because I get 5% cashback though sbi cashback. Also I don't want to face the situation like trip is completed and then payment is not working. This situation would be more stressful for me compared to waiting for 7 days for refund.

You can use upi id as a payment method to book ride and after driver completes the ride, cancel the upi payment request and pay using sbi cashback card or any other cashback card.

 

[souvikr]

You can use upi id as a payment method to book ride and after driver completes the ride, cancel the upi payment request and pay using sbi cashback card or any other cashback card.

Both upi and credit card payment can fail. But if it fails I want to face it before taking the ride, not after the ride. I just want to get down from my cab tension free. I got your point as well, you just want to pay only for the sucessful trips.

 

[provost]

That is why I always use Banks Own Banking App for UPI txns or Only BHIM App.

Tbh in such a case neither will help. Pendency issue is at the receiver's bank.

I would prefer online payment modes only, but absolutely no driver accepts my ride if they come to know that it is online payment.


so in this case even UPI lite won't help right? since the problem is at receiver's bank?

Yes, it wouldn't. UPI Lite solves for issues at sender's bank.

 

[VISHESH_BANSAL]

Tbh in such a case neither will help. Pendency issue is at the receiver's bank.

It will help.
If you use Banks Own Banking App, in such a case PSP is your Bank itself not a third Party Bank, which will further help in a smooth txn and Bank will mark a txn failed in such a Case, if Your Bank is unable to remmit the Funds to the Benificiary..

I am using Kotak Bank App and never faced such Pending issue. Either Success or Failed.

In case of a Third Party App, chaces are there that Amount is already deducted even when a Txn is showing Failed in a Third Party App.
This issue is eliminated when you are using Bank's Own App.

 

[provost]

It will help.
If you use Banks Own Banking App, in such a case PSP is your Bank itself not a third Party Bank, which will further help in a smooth txn and Bank will mark a txn failed in such a Case, if Your Bank is unable to remmit the Funds to the Benificiary..

I am using Kotak Bank App and never faced such Pending issue. Either Success or Failed.

In case of a Third Party App, chaces are there that Amount is already deducted even when a Txn is showing Failed in a Third Party App.
This issue is eliminated when you are using Bank's Own App.

Well I work for one of these large fintechs, and look after one of the UPI products as product manager. In a P2M scenario (registered merchants where you can use wallet), there is no concept of a pending transaction as NPCI marks these as failed or success. In these scenarios if any debit happens, the merchant acquirer is supposed to refund the money back to source. Merchant acquirer is in the money movement path in these scenarios and hence have a control.

In the OP's post, they mention what appears to be a P2PM transaction in fintech parlance, which is a merchant transaction but there is no settlement (so like a P2P txn). As there is no settlement, the merchant acquirer is not in the money movement path which is essentially same as a P2P UPI txn. The only value addition of TPAPs (third party application providers) is ensuring UI/UX and a no systemic downtimes at their end. Each TPAP app also has an aggressive recon strategy to avoid missing any callbacks.

In P2PM/P2P scenarios, the role of TPAP ends after PIN entry. The app sends the call to NPCI which sends to sender bank's UPI switch which verifies the PIN/limit etc and then debits the amount and sends a callback to NPCI. This is followed by a call from NPCI to reciever bank where it asks the reciever bank to credit the amount. Here, if the receiver's bank is down or latent, this API call with timeout, thereby resulting in a pending txn.

On your point of banks providing better apps as TPAPs use a third party bank for PSP services, it falls flat by the virtue of simple argument that Paytm has it's own bank and is not a TPAP app. However, you will still see such issues. It's just that you've been lucky with your usage of Kotak's app.

 

[ltf4ever]

Well I work for one of these large fintechs, and look after one of the UPI products as product manager. In a P2M scenario (registered merchants where you can use wallet), there is no concept of a pending transaction as NPCI marks these as failed or success. In these scenarios if any debit happens, the merchant acquirer is supposed to refund the money back to source. Merchant acquirer is in the money movement path in these scenarios and hence have a control.

In the OP's post, they mention what appears to be a P2PM transaction in fintech parlance, which is a merchant transaction but there is no settlement (so like a P2P txn). As there is no settlement, the merchant acquirer is not in the money movement path which is essentially same as a P2P UPI txn. The only value addition of TPAPs (third party application providers) is ensuring UI/UX and a no systemic downtimes at their end. Each TPAP app also has an aggressive recon strategy to avoid missing any callbacks.

In P2PM/P2P scenarios, the role of TPAP ends after PIN entry. The app sends the call to NPCI which sends to sender bank's UPI switch which verifies the PIN/limit etc and then debits the amount and sends a callback to NPCI. This is followed by a call from NPCI to reciever bank where it asks the reciever bank to credit the amount. Here, if the receiver's bank is down or latent, this API call with timeout, thereby resulting in a pending txn.

On your point of banks providing better apps as TPAPs use a third party bank for PSP services, it falls flat by the virtue of simple argument that Paytm has it's own bank and is not a TPAP app. However, you will still see such issues. It's just that you've been lucky with your usage of Kotak's app.

thanks for the detailed mechanism.
so mine was a P2P txn where the receiver was the driver (not uber).
see the screenshot attached. as soon as I entered the UPI pin, I got the message saying receiver's bank has received the payment, but the transaction was pending and will be updated in 48 hours. I can't understand what's happening here. if phonepe tells me that the receiver bank has received the money, why can't it tell me that the transaction is success (and also send the driver's bank should send the driver the credit sms)?