UPI Payment Debited but Not Received? RBI's ₹100 a Day Rule

If a UPI payment is debited from your account but the shop never received it, where is the money, and how long can the bank hold it? The short answer: the money is not lost. It is stuck in transit between banks, and the RBI has put a clock on it. A failed transfer to a person must be reversed by T+1 and a failed payment to a merchant by T+5, where T is the day of the transaction. If the bank is late, the RBI rule provides compensation of ₹100 for every day of delay, and it is meant to be paid without you asking. The rule covers technical failures only, not money sent to a wrong UPI ID.

What happens when a UPI payment times out

When you scan a QR code and enter your PIN, your bank debits your account first. The request then goes to NPCI, which runs UPI and acts as the go-between. NPCI passes it to the shop's bank and waits for that bank to say "yes, credited".

Usually the reply arrives within seconds. Sometimes it does not, and the payment can end in one of two ways:

1. The bank clearly says no. The payment fails and your money comes back.
2. No reply comes at all. This is a timeout. Your account has been debited, the shop has not been credited, and nobody has confirmed or cancelled the payment.

The second case is where the confusion starts. When no answer arrives, the system applies what is called deemed approval: it assumes the payment reached the shop. NPCI has a circular on debit reversals and deemed approval, and we do not go into its internal timings here. The point for you is simple: assuming a payment arrived is not the same as the payment arriving. Your money is not in your account and not in the shop's account. It sits in the accounts between the banks until the reversal is completed.

The RBI clock: T+1 and T+5

An RBI circular dated 20 September 2019 sets the maximum time banks get to sort out failed transactions, called the turnaround time (TAT). For UPI, two rows matter:

A few details from the circular are worth knowing:

• T is the day of the transaction and refers to the calendar date.
• The TAT is described as the outer limit. Banks are expected to resolve failed transactions sooner where they can.
• Financial compensation is to be paid to the customer's account without waiting for a complaint or claim.
• It covers domestic transactions, where both sender and receiver are in India, and failures not attributable to the customer.

A worked example with real numbers

Say you pay ₹500 to a shop. The money leaves your account, but the shop never sees it. Because it is a merchant payment, the deadline is T+5. Suppose the refund reaches you 10 days after that deadline. The compensation is ₹100 × 10 days = ₹1,000, which is twice the amount that was stuck. On top of that you get your ₹500 back. These figures are our own calculation using the circular's rates, not a number published by the RBI.

Two things stand out. The compensation is ₹100 a day whatever the payment amount, so on a small payment it can quickly exceed the money that was stuck. And a refund on the deadline day itself earns nothing, because the rule applies only to delay beyond T+1 or T+5. This day-count is a simple one. The sources do not explain how each bank counts days, so if the figure you receive looks different, ask your bank for its working.

Who this affects, and what it does not cover

Anyone who uses UPI can face a stuck payment, whether they are paying a friend or a shop. Shopkeepers see the other side: their app shows nothing while the customer's app shows a debit. Arguing at the counter does not fix it, because the reversal runs through the banks.

The rule is meant for technical failures. If you typed a wrong UPI ID or approved a payment to the wrong person, the compensation does not apply, as Tech2 reports. The circular itself speaks of failures "not attributable to the customer". So read the name shown on screen before you press pay.

Common mistakes

• Waiting with no complaint on record. Compensation is meant to be automatic, but if the money does not arrive and there is no ticket, you have nothing to escalate.
• Accepting "please wait" with no date. The bank cannot hold your money for as long as it likes. Ask which deadline, T+1 or T+5, applies to your payment and which calendar date that is.
• Assuming a wrong-ID payment is covered. It is not.
• Not checking the statement. The refund and the compensation can arrive as two separate entries, so look for both.
• Sharing a PIN or OTP. A refund does not need your UPI PIN or OTP. Anyone asking for them to "process" a refund is a warning sign.
• Skipping the bank. The Ombudsman comes after you have complained to your bank, not instead of it.

What to do, step by step

1. Complain in the app. Open the payment in your UPI app's history and raise a complaint there. NPCI's UPI Help covers in-app complaints for both person-to-person and merchant payments.
2. Go to your bank. Contact the bank linked to the debited account. If the deadline has passed, ask for both the refund and the delay compensation.
3. Try NPCI. If the bank does not act, file or track a complaint with NPCI, which forwards eligible cases to the relevant bank.
4. Escalate to the RBI Ombudsman. Under the RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme 2026, you can escalate if the bank does not reply within 30 days or you are not satisfied with its reply. You can use the RBI's CMS portal, email, a written application to the Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre in Chandigarh, or helpline 14448. File within 90 days of the bank's final response, or after the response period ends with no reply.

Throughout, save the transaction ID, amount, date, recipient details and screenshots, and write down every ticket number.

Key takeaways

• A debited-but-failed UPI payment is in transit between banks, not gone.
• The RBI's deadlines are T+1 for transfers to people and T+5 for merchant payments, with T as the transaction date.
• After the deadline, compensation is ₹100 per day of delay, meant to be paid without a claim.
• It applies to technical failures, not wrong UPI IDs.
• Complain in the app, then to your bank, then NPCI, then the RBI Ombudsman, and keep every ID, screenshot and ticket number.
• Never share a PIN or OTP for a refund.