Travelling to Spain? You may soon be able to pay with UPI

More good news follows just a day after Spain lifted the FIFA World Cup, and we spent the night celebrating them. If you are from India and is planning to travel to Europe, making payments could become easier in the future as India explores wider acceptance of its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) across many international markets.

During the recent visit of Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister to Europe, India and Spain agreed to move ahead with technical discussions on how they can enable the interoperability between India's UPI and Spain’s digital payments platform, Bizum.

Besides this, discussions with Estonia also included cooperation in fintech and UPI integration.

What else do we know about UPI payments in Spain and other European countries?

While the timelines and details of the integration are yet to be finalised, wider acceptance of UPI could offer Indian travellers another digital payment option when they are abroad.

UPI, which has become a widely-used payment method in India, allowing users to make instant bank-to-bank transfers through mobile applications, if similar linkages are expanded overseas, Indian travellers may be able to use UPI-enabled apps for payments at participating merchants in partner countries, making payments a lot more easier. Travellers would also be relieved from the hassle of carrying a lot of cash while they travel.

Not just Spain, Indian travellers can avail global digitl payments in these countries too

Not just Spain, India has also been working to expand UPI’s international presence through partnerships with several other countries. As of now, Indians can avail UPI services in several markets like France, Singapore, the UAE, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Qatar.

The expansion is a part of India’s wider efforts to promote its digital public infrastructure globally and build easier cross-border payment connections.

If you are travelling soon from India, here's what you should know

Even as UPI expands overseas, acceptance will depend on local partnerships, merchant availability and support from payment apps, and travellers may still need international debit or credit cards for certain transactions such as hotel deposits, large payments or locations where UPI is not accepted. If you are travelling to Nepal and Bhutan, make sure that your card permissions for these two countries are on.

It must be noted that digital payment connectivity can improve convenience for travellers, but users should remain aware of applicable foreign exchange charges, transaction limits and payment terms while using any international payment method.

For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.