As BHIM downloads touch 5 million, payment app hit by glitches

Launched on Dec 30, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based BHIM, Bharat Interface for Money, is currently available only on Google’s Play Store (it is yet to make an appearance on the Apple iOS platform) – and users have been registering their complaints there. A common complaint is about the app not being able to generate a mobile PIN for debit cards that do not have expiry dates. 

One user criticised the “very poor app establishment”, citing the inability to generate a PIN using the Maestro debit card. Asking the authorities to “please look into the matter at the earliest”, he contended that some 30-40 per cent of account holders have debit cards without expiry dates. 

Another, account-holder with SBI, lamented that the condition of his ATM card – which does not have an expiry date – was “very good” and that he would have to pay Rs 500 to get it changed to new one. There also appear to be “certain server-side bandwidth issues”, say experts, which have caused problems such as the Virtual Payment Address (VPA) not being identified, leading to some failed transactions.

Overall, however, the experts described the glitches as “initial teething problems” that would get addressed with time. “We have to dwell deeper into the nature of complaints to assess the exact reason of their occurrences. As people are increasingly using digital transactions, we must bear in mind that users need to be informed about being intelligent in their usage,” Thomas George, Senior Vice President and Head of CyberMedia Research (CMR), a Gurgaon-based market research firm, said. 

When they initiate transactions, the business loses control of a large portion of the transaction interaction as customers use a variety of devices, to access the app.