Mony - UPI for Tourists & NRIs

First of all, they don’t tell you that you can’t do anything to prepare in advance before landing in India. So when you come out of the airport. You either need use your credit cards or convert cash to rupees. (Part 1 of how this is a fail) although they got be all setup in 8 hours, the standard time they ask for is 2days. When using it didn’t work everywhere. I have multiple failed attempts at several places so it always a hit or miss. Poor customer care- one of my transactions went through on my end and failed at the merchant. Their solution after 5 days for following up was to contact the merchant and figure it out yourself. On top of that, I read on their FAQ that there is a 500 rupee maintenance fee for inactivity. Clear your account out before leaving India.

For years Indians have paid for nearly everything with UPI but foreigners were prevented from using it (unless you had an Indian bank account). Since last summer UPI has opened to foreign travelers and it is a must have. Transfer funds from your bank or cc account instantly and you’ll have the equivalent INR in your Mony account. Two important things to remember however! 1. There is a fee to transfer and your bank will obviously charge a conversion fee. So UPI may be more about convenience than savings. YMMV. 2. UPI is run by the government and as of March 2026 foreigners cannot pay to personal accounts. MANY people like auto drivers and small vendors do NOT have business accounts so you will still need cash (or credit cards depending on the payee). Nonetheless Mony is the app to use because you can set it up and verify before coming to India. From looking at the other few apps that support foreign UPI, that’s not the case. You will have to verify in person once in India. Mony makes it much simpler.

You need a UPI app in India, now. I have only tried Mony, & it’s a fairly good one. It works pretty seamlessly. It took almost two days to set up (a human being needs to verify you before you can start using the app), so build in an expectation of delay when you get started. At this point in time, you can only make transfers to business accounts. You thus can’t give friends money, & you will only very rarely be able to pay for autorickshaws with Mony. While Indians can use UPI for almost anything (even a cup of tea at a tea point), you will need to manage two payment systems—UPI & cash.