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The Economic Times
The Economic Times
Sneha Kulkarni

UPI vs debit vs credit cards: Will UPI payments with MDR charges still be cheapest? NPCI explains

From October 15, 2026, some Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Person-to-Merchant (P2M) transactions above Rs 2,000 will attract a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) of 0.4%. However, the new charge will not apply to every UPI payment, and customers making UPI payments will not be charged MDR. It will be the merchants who will bear the MDR cost.

After the MDR charge announcement on certain merchant UPI transactions, many UPI users are thinking whether they should shift from the UPI to a debit card or a credit card for daily transactions.

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