UPI Outage Hits India: Here’s How UPI Lite X Can Help You Make Payments Without Internet:

Users in different parts of India have experienced problems with Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions, with payment failures on Google Pay, Paytm and a plethora of banking applications. This has also hit some of the larger banks like State Bank of India (SBI) which had issues from users relating to mobile and internet banking.

During a downtime period for UPI transactions, UPI Lite X comes in handy, allowing for an internet free transaction, however the user will need to come online within four days.

What is UPI Lite X?

UPI Lite X is an offline payment mechanism rolled out by National Payments Corporation of India. It is specifically designed to let users send and receive money at their convenience without requiring an internet connection as in the case of flights or remote areas like basements.

It works with Near Field Communication (NFC) enabling payments of up to Rs 500 in a single transaction. While the feature allows multiple payments to be made, the user is required to go online within four days to merge the payment details.

How to make payments when UPI services are down

With UPI Lite X, payments can still be made when UPI services are unobtainable by following these steps:

1. Open the UPI app on your device.

2. Select “Tap & Pay” within the app.

3. Type in the amount you wish to send.

4. Position your phone against the recipient's phone (both must have NFC on).

5. No internet connectivity or UPI PIN authentication is required to send the payment; it goes through automatically.

Be advised, both the sender and receiver must enable UPI Lite X to make use of the offline payments feature.

Supported Devices

At this time, UPI Lite X can only be used on Android smartphones that are equipped with NFC; there have been no announcements made regarding support for iPhones.

Adjustments to UPI Lite X Balances

• Customers need to turn off UPI Lite X before logging into a different device or reinstalling a UPI app in order to use the balance still available.

• Users who lose or change devices must report to their issuing bank to enable balance retrieval and disable the condition on their account.

No internet connectivity restriction ensures seamless transactions making payments during UPI outages possible even while utilizing the UPI Lite X feature.