Paytm has started charging a surcharge for mobile fees through its platform. Fees can be anywhere between Re. 1 and Rs. 6 – depending on the deposit amount. It is applicable to all Paytm mobile recharges, regardless of payment method – whether done through a balance on Paytm Wallet or a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) or a credit card or bank debit card. The update is notably not available to all users at this time. Last year, Paytm competitor PhonePe started experimenting with charging a surcharge for mobile charges.
According to user reports available on Twitter, Paytm started taking the surcharge as a convenience fee, although Gadgets 360 can now confirm that the additional fee is available as a platform fee. It seems to have been initially implemented for some users at the end of March. However, the sudden increase in recent user reports suggests that the update is now available to a large number of users.
Gadgets 360 was able to independently verify that the surcharge does not apply to all Paytm users at this time. It is important to note that additional fees may apply for transactions over Rs. 100.
Paytm is charging a surcharge on mobile charges from some users
However, selected users who have been considered part of the update need to pay up to Rs. 6 as an additional fee higher and higher than the mobile recharge they are paying through Paytm app.
A person familiar with the development told Gadgets 360 that Paytm is taking a surcharge from some users as part of an experiment to boost its revenue.
In 2019, Paytm posted on Twitter to state that they will not charge any convenience or transaction fees from customers using any payment method including cards, UPIs and wallets.
Important: Paytm does not charge and will not charge any convenience or transaction fees from customers when using any payment method including Cards, UPI and Wallets. Read our blog to know more. ️
https://t.co/rfPp21MAx1– Paytm (@Paytm) July 1, 2019
A query sent to Paytm received no response at the time of publishing this article.
Similar to Paytm, PhonePe in October started charging a surcharge it calls “processing fee” to customers for mobile charges above Rs. 50. The Walmart-owned company at the time said that the fee was imposed on a “small scale experience” and did not affect all users.
However, user reports available on social media indicate that the number of users seeing additional charges on their PhonePe accounts is not small as hundreds of users have reported that the platform This is charging additional fees for their mobile recharges.
Both PhonePe and Paytm have yet to officially reveal the criteria they use to select customers to charge additional fees.
A spokesperson for PhonePe declined to comment on queries surrounding its criteria for the test and its total number of users selected for the surcharge.
Payments Council of India (PCI) President Vishwas Patel told Gadgets 360 that telecom companies in the country have recently reduced commissions to around 50 percent in points (pip) on transactions for merchants. Online Retailers. In addition, he also noted that if a customer pays via credit card, where the merchant discount rate (MDR) is 1.8%, the online retailer cannot process the deposits. .
However, the platforms include Amazon Pay and Google Pay currently does not charge any additional fees for mobile recharges. As a result, some users who are concerned about the price are shifting their deposits to these platforms for the time being.
Telecom operators include Airtel, Because and Jio also support mobile phone charging through their native apps. As a result, Paytm and PhonePe surcharges could be an opportunity for telcos to steer customers towards their solutions over time.
