Paying Extra at Checkout? 3 UPI Rights You Have

Merchants cannot add any surcharge when you pay via UPI. The price on the board is the price you pay — full stop. If a shop charges you extra for UPI, they are breaking the rules and you can report them.

Here's what happened: Punjab & Sind Bank's MD publicly confirmed that merchants onboarded on UPI cannot pass MDR or any payment-processing charges on to customers.. Under NPCI's merchant acquiring rules, the price a customer pays must equal the posted/displayed price — no surcharge is permitted for UPI or digital payments.. MDR on UPI person-to-merchant transactions has effectively been zero since January 2020, so merchants have no legitimate cost basis to charge customers extra..

What you should do: Check your next restaurant or petrol pump bill — if UPI/card surcharge appears as a separate line, refuse it and ask the merchant to remove it; it is not legally enforceable.. Report any merchant who insists on a digital-payment surcharge by filing a complaint on RBI's Sachet portal (sachet.rbi.org.in) or calling your bank's customer care.. Screenshot the bill and note the merchant's name and UPI QR details before disputing — this evidence is what NPCI or your bank needs to act on your complaint..

Pro tip: A merchant's UPI QR code contains their Merchant ID. Screenshot it alongside a photo of the surcharge on your bill — complaints with this evidence get resolved significantly faster than those without.

For readers weighing their credit and loan options, our personal loan guide and CIBIL score resources put this update in context.