What Is UPI Lite, and Should You Use It?
You pay ₹20 for chai and type your UPI PIN. Then ₹40 for an auto, and the PIN again. By evening your bank statement is a long list of tiny payments. UPI Lite was made for exactly these. What is …
Tag: money
Make a Parent's Phone Safe for Payments
Your mother pays for vegetables by phone now. She is quietly proud of it. She is also the person a fraudster wants to call tonight. You cannot sit beside her forever. So the aim is different. Set the phone up …
The First Hour After Money Leaves Your Account
The message arrives and your stomach drops. Money has gone. You know at once you should not have tapped that. The next hour matters more than anything else. Shame is the thing most likely to waste it. So here is …
Paying for Five Apps and Watching One
Somebody signed up for one month to watch one series. That was two years ago. The money still leaves the account every month. Most households have no real idea what their television costs them. Where did all these subscriptions come …
The Monthly Deduction You Forgot You Agreed To
A small amount leaves your account and you cannot place it. It is not a fraud, and that is what makes it annoying. It is something you agreed to on a Sunday afternoon eighteen months ago. It has been collecting …
Turn Off the Card Payments You Never Make
Think about how you actually used your debit card last month. A few taps at shops, some online shopping, perhaps one visit to an ATM. Now think about what that card is still allowed to do. Anything, anywhere in the …
Why Shops No Longer Store Your Card Number
You go to pay online. The app asks for your card details again. But the card was already saved. It feels like a step backwards. It is not. A rule change a few years ago fixed something real. It took …
Never Reach Your Bank Through a Search Result
A payment fails and you want to speak to someone. So you search for the bank's customer care number. The first few results look right, and you call one. That one habit has emptied a great many accounts. Why is …
The Bank Call That Is Never From Your Bank
The call always comes at the worst moment. You are driving, or halfway out of the door. Your KYC has expired, and the account will be frozen tonight. They know your name and they know your bank. All of that …
Can Scanning a QR Code Take Money From You?
Every shop counter in India now has a QR code taped to it. We scan them without a second thought. That is exactly why people worry about them. The worry deserves a proper answer. The truth is reassuring, and the …
Someone Is Requesting Money, Not Sending It
A notification says there is money for you. All you have to do is approve it. You are halfway through your day, so you tap. Then the app asks for your PIN, and the money goes the other way. It …
Where You Should Never Type Your UPI PIN
Someone on a call is being very patient with you. They just need you to open your UPI app and enter your PIN. Then the refund can finally go through. So many UPI frauds in India end at that exact …
Set Up UPI So a Lost Phone Costs You Nothing
Your phone slips out of your pocket in an auto. You are not thinking about the handset. You are thinking about everything the handset can pay for. That fear deserves twenty minutes of your time, once. Set this up today …
What Actually Happens When You Pay by UPI?
You hold your phone to a QR code at the vegetable stall. Four seconds later it is done. Most of us have done this a thousand times. We have never once asked what actually happened. That is fine until a …
The Work-From-Home Task Job That Pays You First
It always starts the same way. A message out of nowhere, from a number you don't know. "Part-time job, work from home, earn Rs 3,000-5,000 a day." "Just watch a few videos, rate some hotels, complete simple tasks." And at …