What is UPI Virtual Payment Address (VPA)?

UPI (Unified Payment Interface) is a new initiative from Government of India to make digital cashless transactions easy and smooth. Using a UPI App, we can send money to a friend or pay to a merchant directly from our app without the hassle of having a credit and debit card, or without going through netbanking site and its password flow. It is a credible alternative to e-wallets (paytm, mobiwik, etc.) as it allows us to send money directly from our bank account without first parking the money in an e-wallet.

While paying a friend or a merchant through UPI app, you need to enter their 'Virtual Payment Address (VPA)'. Now many people are confused about this - what is Virtual Payment Address (VPA) and how to find a friend or a merchant's Virtual Payment Address.

What is Virtual Payment Address

In UPI, Virtual Payment Address (VPA) acts as an alternative to one's bank account number. That is, while tranfering money one needs to know the virtual payment address of the receiver instead of his/her bank account number which is required in NEFT or IMPS tranfers.

Virtual Payment Address (VPA) is the only detail you need to know while transferring money. Also, there is no pre registration required for the beneficiary. This makes the process very simple and quick.

Virtual Payment Address (VPA) typically looks like an email address - 'mohan@SBI' or 'brij@HDFC'

Benefits of Virtual Payment Address

• No need to give bank account number and other details like IFSC code for getting money.

• No pre-registration of beneficiary (receiver of money) unlike in netbanking.

• Money gets transferred immediately from sender's bank account to receiver's.

• No need to park money somewhere other than your bank unlike e-wallets like paytm, mobiwik, etc.

• Single address for accessing one's own multiple bank accounts.

• Easy to remember as you choose it yourself. :)

Making Payment to a Virtual Payment Address (VPA)

Funds Transfer is the main feature of UPI and Virtual Payment Address (VPA). Here are some points to remember before doing transfer -

• To transfer funds through UPI, both the parties (sender and receiver) must be registered on UPI. See UPI Registration and Virtual Address Creation

• Sender must have the MPIN set to authenticate the funds transfer.

• Sender must know the Virtual Payment Address (VPA) of the receiver/beneficiary.

The process of money transfer is very simple and quick. Just open your UPI app, select funds transfer / payment , enter VPA of beneficiary and your MPIN for authentication. Thats it!

VPA linked with multiple bank accounts

You can link multiple bank accounts with your Virtual Payment Address. If you link more than 1 account to a VPA, you can set a default account to send money and a default account to receive money. You can change your default accounts anytime.

You can have multiple Virtual Payment Address also. So if you have multiple bank accounts, you have the choice of creating multiple VPAs for each account or you can link all the accounts to a single VPA.