Managing household expenses often involves more than handling personal payments. From supporting children and elderly parents to enabling trusted staff to make routine purchases, families today require flexible and secure payment options. Addressing this need, the BHIM Payments App has introduced a new feature called UPI Circle, designed to allow controlled access to digital payments without compromising security.
UPI Circle enables a primary user to authorise up to five secondary users to make UPI payments from the primary user’s linked bank account within preset limits. The primary user can set a monthly spending cap of up to ₹15,000 and define the validity of authorisation from one month to five years. Each transaction remains visible to the primary user, ensuring transparency and a clear audit trail. Importantly, the feature removes the need to share UPI PINs, passwords or device access. The feature is particularly useful for senior citizens, students, small business operators and families with varying levels of digital familiarity. It allows safe delegation while retaining full control, as permissions can be reviewed, modified or revoked at any time.
Digital payments are steadily gaining acceptance among retailers and small traders. With increased smartphone usage and growing awareness of secure UPI platforms, features like UPI Circle are expected to support safer shared transactions for households and small businesses across the city.
