Digital Payments: UPI has brought a major revolution in digital transactions in India. With this, it has become much easier to transfer money instantly from bank to bank using just a mobile number or UPI ID. But meanwhile the question arises that how does the United States, which is far ahead in technology, do digital money transfer? Let us know the method of transferring money in America.

How did digital payments start?

As more people across the world are adopting mobile-based payments, cash is slowly disappearing. UPI in India has made the process of transactions much easier, from paying for groceries to transferring money to family and friends. Even internationally, countries like Qatar are using UPI for instant payments. But apart from all this, America has adopted many types of digital payment systems. But none of them provide government support and other facilities like UPI.

wallet based transfer

In the US and many European countries, digital payments are often made through wallet services like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. All these platforms transfer money instantly but they work as wallet to wallet payments. Unlike UPI, all these systems do not transfer money directly between bank accounts in real time.

The closest alternative to UPI

However, wallet services are prevalent and there are some bank-to-bank transfer systems in the US that are similar to UPI. Zelle, a payment platform created by US banks, allows sending money directly from one bank account to another. Similarly, apps like Cash App and Venmo also provide the facility of bank to bank transfer.

Technology is not like India

Despite being much ahead in technology, there is not a single standardized system in the American market. There is no facility like UPI that can integrate all the banks for instant payment. This means that users here have to choose from multiple services based on convenience, bank or transaction limit, whereas in India, UPI works seamlessly across almost all banks and apps. The situation is exactly the same in Europe also. Although there are mobile wallet and instant payment apps, they do not provide bank to bank transfer system.