Gpay New Update: People who pay their electricity, water or gas bills through Google Pay should be aware of a major update. The platform has imposed a convenience fee of 0.5% to 1% on debit and credit card payments and GST on utility bills. For direct payments from a bank account through UPI, there are no additional charges.

What are the changes?

Google Pay did not charge a processing fee for bill payments until recently, but the rollout of that facility means that electricity bill payments will now attract a processing fee after the introduction of a Rs 3 mobile recharge fee last year. For example, a credit card bill payment for an electricity bill was charged Rs 15 plus GST as a convenience fee.

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Google Pay is not the first company to charge such a fee. PhonePe and Paytm already charge similar fees for mobile recharges, utility bill payments, and other services.

UPI payments are free

Payments are available to those who make them directly from their bank accounts through UPI without any charges. As of this week, Google Pay, with a 37% share of UPI transactions, processed over Rs 5 lakh crore worth of transactions in January alone.

While there are processing costs for transactions made through Canada, these costs will now be passed on to consumers. According to an official release from the company, card payments will now be charged a convenience fee, while UPI payments will remain free.

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