Autopay chaos in sight as @paytm nears 31 Aug end

Come 1 September, and thousands of autopay transactions for insurance premiums and Netflix subscriptions may fail, as a hard deadline to discontinue the @paytm handle for UPI payments kicks in.

- Shayan Ghosh & Anshika Kayastha

As part of a series of measures against Paytm Payments Bank last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) curbed the use of the @paytm UPI handle. Following this, the National Payments Corp. of India (NPCI) mandated migrating these handles to other banks. However, multiple old handles remain tied to autopay mandates, putting these planned transactions at risk once the deadline is crossed, two people familiar with the matter said.

"Users will have to first cancel the existing mandate linked to the @paytm handle and then create a fresh one with their new handles. There has to be a greater push for users to do that," said an insurance industry executive said on the condition of anonymity. Despite repeated reminders, many customers have not migrated yet, the executive added.

Emails sent to the Reserve Bank of India, NPCI and Paytm remained unanswered.

On 31 January 2024, RBI barred any addition of funds to Paytm Payments Bank accounts, wallets and Fastags. In February 2024, RBI said that @paytm UPI handles should be migrated to a different clutch of banks and that the payments bank will not be allowed to undertake any transactions post 15 March.