Cheq:UPI for Foreigners & NRIs

Normally, I only review things I love. Making an exception here to warn others. At times Cheq works smoothly, creating a critical gateway to payments in India. However, the service is frequently down for hours or days without notice. Sometimes it won’t open the scan screen. Sometimes the add money service is “not available”. Sometimes you try to add money, and it claims your credit card CVV is incorrect. You may be awkwardly unable to pay at a business, so if you do get Cheq, never assume it will work, have backup, and treat the app like a toy. If you get Cheq, have a travel partner get a different app for when one goes down. We got Cheq in Pune; Transcorp had the wrong address listed for the KYC. We finally got to the correct location, but later when we went again to add our son on, the office was closed permanently, but was still listed on Transcorp’s website. They actually asked us to come to Delhi to add him, as if that was feasible. When our daughter initially signed up, Cheq froze her American account for 1000 DOLLARS instead of charging the 1000 rupee fee because their subsidiary didn’t process the exchange rate; eventually corrected after getting the American bank involved. Customer service is largely ineffective and unavailable, and not at all present on weekends. If other options become available, choose carefully.

PROS: I’m a US citizen traveling to India without a local phone number or bank, so I couldn’t use Google Pay or PayTM. Cheq let me use my US phone number and debit card to set up an account, even sending a representative to my hotel the same day to verify documents. (Be sure to select INR as your currency and turn on location services.) CONS: Cheq doesn’t allow peer to peer payments! This should be disclosed up front because many local businesses including fitness studios, shops, and taxis don’t have merchant codes or PhonePe. This means I paid Cheq transaction fees for funds I can’t use. Cheq should enable p2p payments for a better service.

One big mistake a lot of foreigners make visiting india is assuming their credit cards from their home country will work in india. While this assumption may work in a number of other places outside India such as Mexico or France or Hong Kong, this is not the case in India. India has its own UPI payments system and most vendors in india only accept UPI or cash. And to be frank, many vendors don’t have much change for higher rupee notes Eg if an item costs 70 rupees and you pay with a 500 rupee note, the vendor won’t likely have change. Thankfully Cheq makes this process for a foreigner to get upi simple and quick. You send an application with your details such as your passport and visa and Cheq takes care of the rest of the process.