'Cash is always King': UPI down again; netizens share anecdotes

Netizens shared pictures of other places they were stuck at since they could not complete the payment with UPI being down.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) users across India took to socal media on Saturday to complain about the service being down. This is the third time in less than a fortnight that UPI witnessed outages impacting transactions. In the recent past, UPI outage was reported on March 26 and April 2.

Laughing at the Indian online payment system, one user wrote on X: "#UPIDown again. So strange!! This is becoming way too frequent nowadays. First #UPI goes down, then banks declare their own “downtime” for UPI transactions. India ka online payment system 😂😂😂!"

Another shared the embarrassment one faces when UPI stops working during a payment.

"Just finished lunch like a boss but when I tried paying via UPI—boom! Server down. Now I’m just sitting in hotel like a wanted criminal full stomach but cooked RIP to me! 💀," a social media user wrote on X.

Netizens also shared pictures of other places they were stuck at since they could not complete the payment with UPI being down.

"UPI is down again. Good that I always carry cash. Cash is always King!! 😅," a netizen shared.

According to the outage tracking platform Downdetector, a platform that monitors service disruptions based on user reports, complaints about UPI failures were being received after 11:30 am.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system developed and managed by the NPCI, an RBI-regulated entity.

NPCI acknowledged that users are facing partial transaction decline and it is working to resolve the issue.

"NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue and will keep you updated. We regret the inconvenience caused," NPCI said in a post on X.

UPI is built over the IMPS infrastructure and allows you to instantly transfer money between two bank accounts.

The payment interface provides a transfer facility without any user charge. Users can transfer any amount of money at any time without incurring additional fees from NPCI.

It is also widely used for small payments at local shops, as there is no minimum transaction limit. Additionally, UPI offers a convenient AutoPay feature, which allows users to set up recurring payments for bills and subscriptions, making transactions seamless and hassle-free.

It is to be noted that transactions through UPI touched a record high of Rs 24.77 lakh crore in March, recording a growth of 12.7 per cent over the preceding month.

The UPI transaction value was Rs 21.96 lakh crore in February.

(With PTI inputs)