UPI users Alert: 7 Major Rule Changes Effective – Avoid These Mistakes to Prevent Payment Failures

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UPI (Unified Payments Interface), which has become the most reliable and easy way of digital payment in India, is used by crores of people daily. Due to the pressure on its system, from August 1, 2025, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) has implemented some major changes and rules, which will affect every UPI user.

With these, apart from increasing the security of the system, an attempt will be made to give a better experience to the users. You can read about these rules in detail below.

You will be able to check the balance only this many times in a day

Till now you could check your bank account balance as many times as you wanted with the help of UPI apps (like Google Pay, PhonePe or Paytm). However, now balance can be checked only 50 times a day in each app. The reason behind this is that often some apps check balance repeatedly in the background, which puts more load on the bank server. This slows down the system and sometimes even crashes, so now this limit has been fixed so that there is no pressure on the resources.

Linked account listing also restricted

Also, now you will be able to see the information of bank accounts linked to your UPI profile (List Account API) only 25 times in every app. Along with this, it has also been made mandatory that this data should be accessed only after taking permission from the user. This step is very important for data privacy and safety.

Time Limit for Recurring Payments

If you have scheduled bill payments like Netflix , electricity bill, EMI, SIP using UPI Autopay , then now these transactions will be processed only in non-peak hours. 10 AM to 1 PM and 5 PM to 9:30 PM are considered peak times. Apart from this, if an Autopay transaction fails, only 3 retries will be allowed. That is, after a total of 4 attempts, that mandate will be considered failed.

Transaction status now in 90 seconds

Now if any of your transactions goes into Pending or Processing, you will get its status update within 90 seconds. Earlier, many times people had to wait for hours and talk to customer care, now this problem will end. However, a user can now check the status of the same transaction only 3 times at most and there should be a gap of at least 90 seconds between each time.

UPI ID of inactive mobile number will be closed

If you have not used the UPI ID associated with any of your mobile numbers in the last 12 months, then that ID will be closed automatically. This change has been brought about so that if an old mobile number is given to another user, money is not transferred from it by mistake. This will also reduce the possibility of fraud.

Adding a new bank account will be more safe

Now if you want to link a new bank account in UPI apps, then there will be more verification checks in that process. This may include multi-factor authentication, mobile OTP and other safety checks at the bank level. This change has been made especially for those users who are linking a new bank account for the first time.

Faster API response time

Now the response to UPI APIs like transaction initiation, address validation etc. should come within 10 seconds. Earlier this time was up to 30 seconds, due to which some transactions got slowed down. Now faster response time will improve the payment experience and apps will run more smoothly.

New system for UPI payment fees

Now the common customer or seller will not have to pay any charge on UPI payment, but payment aggregators like Google Pay, PhonePe will have to pay transaction fees to the banks. This will balance the cost of maintaining the UPI network. However, the government has made it clear that its burden will not be put on the common customers under any circumstances.

Let us tell you, ICICI Bank has announced that now aggregators will have to pay fees for UPI transactions. For this, the bank has sent letters to payment aggregators (PAs) and told them that they will have to pay up to Rs 10 on UPI transactions. Yes Bank and Axis Bank already charge PAs for UPI payments.

After all, why were these big changes made?

By the year 2025, more than 18 billion UPI transactions are happening every month in India. In such a situation, the increasing load on the server was affecting the performance of the system. Balance check, autopay and other APIs were being used repeatedly. The decision to limit them was taken so that the UPI system could remain more stable and reliable. Apart from this, many cases have come to light in which transactions were done on old mobile numbers or in the wrong name by mistake. Now the name of the beneficiary will be visible before the transaction, which will warn the user.

Till now, UPI service was completely free and its cost had to be borne by banks and the government, but in view of the increasing transactions and operational expenses, it has now become necessary that payment aggregators (such as Google Pay, PhonePe etc.) also bear some of its burden. Similarly, during the busy hours of evening and morning, all AutoPay transactions increase the pressure on the system and some transactions fail. By limiting it to non-peak time in the new rules, this problem will also be solved to a great extent.

You have to keep these things in mind

It is clear that now you will have to use your UPI apps with a little caution. You will have to give up the habit of checking the balance frequently and do it only when necessary. You will also have to pay attention to the time of autopay transactions and ensure that the payment is scheduled during non-peak hours. At the same time, if a transaction is stuck, it is important to wait a while to check the status again. It is important to understand and adopt these changes so that you can take advantage of UPI correctly and safely.

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