Google Pay has introduced Pocket Money, a feature built on the National Payments Corporation of India’s UPI Circle framework.

It allows users to enable UPI payments for family members, friends or employees who do not have their own bank accounts.

An existing Google Pay user acts as the primary user, while the added person becomes a secondary user.

Payments made by the secondary user are routed through the primary user’s linked bank account.

Primary users can add up to five secondary users, provided they are saved in their phone contacts, have Google Pay registered with their mobile number, and have either a UPI ID or a UPI Circle QR code.

Spending can be managed in two ways. Under full delegation, the primary user can set a monthly limit of up to 15,000 rupees, allowing the secondary user to make payments within that cap without further approval.

Under partial delegation, each transaction must be approved individually by the primary user.

Google Pay also applies initial restrictions for newly added secondary users. Under full delegation, the first payment can only be made after 30 minutes.

Under partial delegation, payment requests are capped at 5,000 rupees during the first 24 hours.

To use the feature, the primary user must have an active bank account linked to Google Pay.

The setup process also requires details such as the secondary user’s relationship to the primary user and their government identification number.

The verification process helps keep Google Pay Pocket Money in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s Know Your Customer requirements.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by ramstudio via Freepik