India’s leading cab-hailing service, Ola, has now enabled support for making payment for rides via UPI (Unified Payment Interface). This move would benefit all Ola users across 102 cities who use it for booking rides across 5,00,000 vehicles registered with Ola including cabs, auto-rickshaws and taxis.
The integration of UPI with Ola app will not only help Ola users with easier payment process for their rides but will also help a million others to recognise UPI as a safe and secure payment method.
“At Ola, we are committed to the shared vision of a ‘Digital India’; and extending the benefits of a cashless economy to more Indians will only further this vision. Payments through UPI will be much faster and convenient, and we will continue to innovate and adopt similar integration with other platforms to create a robust payment mechanism,” said Pallav Singh, SVP- Ola Money.
UPI payment method is getting a very high adoption rate partly due to the push by the Government of India, and partly because of its ease of use and faster payment processing speed.
Earlier Paytm integrated UPI into their mobile wallet, and then we saw RBI guidelines to make mobile wallets interoperable using UPI. In February 2017, India saw UPI transactions worth Rs. 1,900 crores. Being a new technology, which is still in its nascent stage, we are coming across many cases of UPI frauds, but those will be taken care of in due course of time.
How Will UPI Integration Help Ola Users?
The integration of UPI into the Ola app will help the Ola users immensely. They will now have a new payment method that is fast, secure, and very easy to learn and use.
“UPI integration will lead to one of the fastest modes of payment for millions of Ola users,” said Ola in a press release.
Many e-commerce portals in India are now accepting payment via UPI for adding new users through a seamless payment mechanism and with UPI integration; Ola will appeal to a lot more travellers and daily commuters now.
How Does Ola’s UPI Integration Work?
Ola’s UPI integration is very simple to use and will take no time for anyone to learn the process. The users will now see a new payment option as ‘Pay by UPI’ along with cash, debit/credit card, and Ola Money wallet while making payment for their Ola rides.
Once the ride is finished, the customers need to enter their unique UPI ID on the payment page and then tap on ‘Make Payment’ followed by inputting their 4-6 digit UPI transaction PIN to complete the transaction.
Last year, Ola introduced Ola Credit, which let the commuters use the service first and pay later, and now the company is banking on the future success of the UPI ecosystem to thrive and grow its user base.
The integration of UPI within Ola app is a welcome move for those who want to go cashless, but cannot handle the risk of using their plastic cards for making payments online. Would you stick to paying for your Ola rides using debit/credit cards or would shift to UPI right away? Do let us know via the comments.
