‘Moving towards cash again?’ UPI down in India for third time inside a month

India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), among the many globe’s quickest compensation programs, encountered a further vital failure on Saturday (April 12), noting third such disturbance inside a month.

Downdetector revealed people reporting the failure starting 11:26 am IST. Several people likewise required to X and Facebook to share their aggravation as their purchases fell down mid-way on compensation programs similar to PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.

UPI-maker the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) afterward acknowledged the data and talked about “intermittent technical issues” for the failure. In its declaration, the NPCI claimed it was functioning to repair the issue.

“NPCI is currently facing intermittent technical issues, leading to partial UPI transaction declines. We are working to resolve the issue, and will keep you updated,” the regulatory authority claimed.

The Saturday failure is assumed to have really triggered disturbances to options of great monetary establishments like HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Previous UPI disturbances

The UPI was struck by a big seize on March 26 because the people throughout the nation encountered troubles ending their purchases.

The NPCI in a declaration afterward claimed, “NPCI had faced intermittent technical issues owing to which UPI had partial decline. The same has been addressed now and the system has stabilised. Regret the inconvenience.”

The second such outage was noticed on April 2.

Why is UPI vital?

According to a report by digital funds firm Phi Commerce, UPI now accounts for 65 per cent of all digital transactions in India — making it a real game-changer on the planet of funds.

While UPI is the go-to possibility for small to medium purchases (like tea, groceries, or your go-to road momo man), bank cards and EMIs are nonetheless widespread for big-ticket bills.

The report additionally highlights that folks lean closely on credit score throughout sure occasions — like festive seasons, college admission months, or when huge gross sales pop up.

Livid customers mentioned the frequent service disruption was inflicting an enormous headache to companies in addition to customers.

“The way they are treating upi and keeping it down at random hours is getting really scary day by day. Affecting many small scale businesses and shops. Are we moving towards cash again?” created one buyer.

The means they’re treating upi and protecting it down at random hours is getting actually scary daily. Affecting many small scale companies and outlets. Are we transferring in the direction of money once more?

— Chirag Barjatya (@chiragbarjatyaa) April 12, 2025

“Just finished lunch like a boss but when I tried paying via UPI—boom! Server down. Now I’m just sitting in hotel like a wanted criminal full stomach but cooked RIP to me!” a second mentioned.

A 3rd questioned: “This never happened for so many years. Is this a way to introduce some kind of charge for making UPI payments in future?”