Amazon Pay launches P2P payments through UPI for Android customers
For the P2P payments, customers can send or receive payments by simply selecting a contact from their phone book or entering UPI ID or bank account of the recipient.
Amazon Pay on Monday said that it will launch person-to-person (P2P) payments for Android users, allowing its users to make instant bank-to-bank transfers, while leveraging the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform on the Amazon app.
Customers can use this functionality to settle bills or expenses with friends, lend and return money to family, pay rents, pay for services like house help, newspaper bills, milk subscription, etc. In addition to this, users can also make payments from their bank account to local stores nearby or to Amazon delivery associate at doorstep by scanning UPI QR codes using the Amazon app.
For the P2P payments, customers can send or receive payments by simply selecting a contact from their phone contact book or entering UPI ID or bank account of the recipient. Further, customers can easily access their phone contact book and initiate payments by simply tapping on the contact.
In a statement, Amazon India said that with this launch, it has made it easier for customers to make repeat payments by displaying recent transactions.
Speaking on the development, Vikas Bansal, Director – Amazon Pay, said,
“Our goal is to make Amazon Pay the most trusted, convenient, and rewarding way to pay for our customers. The customers trust their Amazon app and we continue to expand payment use cases directly on the app. With this launch, we have the largest selection of shopping and payment use cases on the Amazon Android app, which provides added convenience and control to our customers.”
So, how will it work?
The new update also allows Amazon Pay users to auto-detect if the contact is a registered Amazon Pay UPI customer, and enables instant bank-to-bank transfer. If the contact is not registered for Amazon Pay UPI, the customer has the option to pay using any another BHIM UPI ID or contact’s bank account.
After selecting contact, the customer inputs the amount and enters UPI PIN to confirm payment. All P2P payments are secured through multi-factor authentication involving customer’s phone, SIM details, and UPI PIN. The money is transferred instantly and both customer and receiver are notified through SMS alerts and in-app notifications.
At present, Amazon competes with Google’s payment arm Google Pay and Indian payment platforms including PhonePe, and Paytm.
According to data from Indian retail payments organisation National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the total UPI transactions in the country reached 799.54 million in March 2019.
Also read: UPI transactions climb to 800M in March: NPCI
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