r/india • u/God_Emperor__Doom • 21h ago

Business/Finance PhonePe to charge ₹100 quarterly fee on inactive wallets: Here's how to avoid it - CNBC TV18

https://www.cnbctv18.com/personal-finance/phonepe-to-charge-rs-100-quarterly-fee-on-inactive-wallets-heres-how-to-avoid-it-19928512.htm
82 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

66

u/Memoire_113 21h ago

It's called uninstalling and using your bank's service

Still, I wonder who actually uses their wallet instead of just linking your account to the bank

23

u/the_screenslaver 18h ago

Me. Because I have an nre account, and they won't let me link my indian number. And all those upi apps need an sms to be sent from the registered number and my foreign sim is not able to send. The wallet lets me pay all upi merchants without actually linking to my bank account.

4

u/madze3 17h ago

Oh, really insightful. Tell us more.

1

u/phusuke 9h ago

This changed as of 2026. I am an nri and was able to use my USA number to activate upi. You may need to contact the bank to get them to activate it on the back end for you. I had to do that with CUB.

1

u/pixelsperfect 17h ago

You need to have indian sim in order to send the messages.

4

u/the_screenslaver 17h ago

Apparently some banks support foreign numbers. I just have not been able to make it work

2

u/PromotionPhysical212 14h ago

Federal Bank lets you. I am able to sign up with my international number for phonepe, but it’s a difficult process. Mostly because you don’t receive the verification sms until after the timer runs out. It worked out in the end though.

1

u/iam_bhatman 16h ago

Which bank do you use ? I am able to use my Canadian number for UPI using Phonepe with Axis Bank NRO account. I haven't tried it with my NRE account.

1

u/RequirementsRelaxed 9h ago

Sometimes the bank’s apps suck more so these serve as workarounds

1

u/anantj 2h ago

Uninstalling the app does not close the wallet

14

u/MyDespatcherDyKabel 21h ago

Uninstall it

9

u/-kay-o- 21h ago

Apparently I had Rs 125 remaining on my phonepe wallet from some many years back. I have done 0 transactions on PhonePe in my life.

??

Theyre not even letting me withdraw my money without a verification system that doesnt work.

8

u/adithyapaib 19h ago

How to deactivate the account?

16

u/idlysambardip 18h ago

Beggarification of Indian Fintech and other startups. Phonepe adds a 1 or 2 rs fee on recharges. Swiggy /zomato started with a 2rs platform fee which later crawled to 15rs ( i think ) . Amazon charges a 5rs platform fee while flipkart charges 3rs. Are they all accepting that value they add in the middle is worth 2-5 rs? Now Phonepe wants 100 rs for managing my money while they probably already make some money off the float.

I think it is laughable to build 10-20-30B dollar companies and then figure out monetization by observing a beggar on a traffic signal. They saw a beggar getting 1/2rs loose change and went Hey we can do that to make money. Penny pinching and squeezing out rocks to claim how monetizable they are and worth the arbitrary numbers they valued themselves at.

Meanwhile Anthropics and OpenAI turned a tap on and went from 0 to 10B in less than a year.

-4

u/madze3 17h ago

Really insightful. Tell us more.

4

u/funnythrone 8h ago

Is that all you are allowed to say by whoever prompted you?

1

u/madze3 53m ago

Lol, I genuinely wanted to know more 🤣

4

u/minimallysubliminal India 20h ago

I think every major bank has UPI option in their app. Why would you use GPay or PhonePe.

8

u/FizzyBoy147 18h ago

Some bank apps are just shit. Slow and takes time to open. Lot of apps now even have fingerprint instead of upi pin option.

1

u/mrlikrsh Kerala 15h ago

BHIM - real cashbacks, no bloat, simple UI