PhonePe has launched innovative card-based features in partnership with Visa, including tap-to-pay, cross-border QR, and merchant acceptance tools, transforming the payments ecosystem for Indian users and merchants.
PhonePe has deepened its payments push with Visa, rolling out a set of card-based features designed to make plastic cards behave more like the instant payments many Indian users already know from UPI. According to reporting around the announcement at the Global Fintech Fest, the partnership centres on tokenised Visa cards, meaning the real card number is replaced with a digital token inside the PhonePe app for added security and broader use across physical and online transactions.
The first feature, Tap to Pay, will allow Android users to pay at compatible point-of-sale terminals by holding their phones near the reader, even in places with weak connectivity, according to LiveMint and Moneycontrol. PhonePe and Visa say the service is intended to bring the ease of a tap-based experience to card payments without requiring users to carry the physical card, building on PhonePe’s earlier work with Mastercard on smartphone-based contactless payments.
A second feature, Cross Border Scan to Pay, is aimed at international spending. LiveMint reported that the service will let users scan Visa-supported QR codes in 14 overseas markets, with the transaction charged to the user’s tokenised Visa card rather than through UPI. PhonePe says this makes it the first Indian app to offer Visa’s cross-border QR payment capability, a step that could matter for travellers looking for a card-linked alternative to cash or foreign-wallet top-ups.
The third product, Smart Accept, is pitched at merchants. Moneycontrol and The Economic Times said the tool turns a compatible smartphone into a card-acceptance device, which may reduce dependence on dedicated POS hardware for smaller sellers. PhonePe plans to fold the feature into its merchant dashboard so businesses can track daily settlements and handle disputes in one place, extending the company’s effort to build a wider payments ecosystem around both consumers and shops.
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