Comment by decimalenough
13 hours ago
Not being able to pay for things is a pretty fundamental problem even for a business traveler to Bangalore.
Last time I bit the bullet and set up Mony, which at least got me access to UPI, but it's limited mostly by government policy: you can't complete the KYC process until you've physically landed in India, can't transfer to personal accounts, fees on adding money, fees on keeping money (they charge "unused balance" fees!), etc.
> Not being able to pay for things is a pretty fundamental problem even for a business traveler to Bangalore
In what situation were you as a foreign traveler where you needed to pay UPI?
Convenience stores and hypermarts like Reliance SMART/Digital and DMart or QuickCommerce platforms like Blinkit accept Visa and AmEx credit cards. Transit via Uber, Ola, and co accept Visa and AmEx credit cards. And most restaurants and bars targeted at outsiders accept Visa and AmEx credit cards. And Hotels accept Visa and AmEx credit cards or can be booked via platforms that accept them like AirBnB.
So transit, residence, restaurants, and convenience stores (all of which will be reimbursed by your employer) are all doable via credit card.
Fundamentally, UPI was built for India3, as were other peers across Asia, not foreigners.
But my SO and I never understood the tay ba lo mindset. Catering to them is what kept Thailand and the Dominican Republic stuck in tourism-induced Dutch disease because it incentivizes extractive and low productivity economic sectors like real estate and low skill services at the expense of human capital development and investing in high productivity industries.
> In what situation were you as a foreign traveler where you needed to pay UPI?
All the time? Credit cards are only accepted by fancy places and cash is increasingly a hassle, especially in a tech-forward place like BLR.
The final straw was when I bought some biryani at a shopping mall food court and tried to pay cash. They had no change, the neighboring stalls had no change, and this wasn't some plot to extract money from the gora, they genuinely didn't have and couldn't find small bills.
In the end they tried to wave it off and discount my meal by 40 rupees or something, and I rounded up by 60 instead. And I remember thinking I probably just created another problem, because now they need to balance the books and parcel out the cash tip without change.
> In what situation were you as a foreign traveler where you needed to pay UPI?
If you live in a tiny bubble and only take an Uber to the Work Campus, Uber to the small number of marts you've found that accept card, Uber to the small number of restaurants that accept card... you have to find them first of course.
Want to buy some cigarettes while you take a stroll in the evening? Good luck. Want a tuktuk to take you a mile across the beautifully walkable road infrastructure? Good luck. Want to get lunch with friends? Good luck.
90% of life doesn't exist inside the corpo "work hotel sleep" bubble, I described it to somebody as akin to trying to pay with bank transfer in the UK, technically you can do it... the manager will come out and spend 20 mins futzing, taxi drivers may be able to do it if you ask nicely, your shopping options will be very limited and far between because you're trying to transact in the non-predominant medium.
Yes, loads of places accept card, larger stores accept card, want coffee? Blue Tokai accepts card. Want Blinkit or Zomato? You need an Indian number first. Want a Hotel? Booking.com is predominantly "pay at the hotel" across most of India, which means it's a dice roll as to whether they'll accept card. You'd be surprised at how many hotels completely forget that not all customers are Indian+Aadhaar+UPI, except by the time you've got there and realized they accept neither C-form nor Card despite telling you explicitly they do - you've already spent the time, money and effort getting there only to find out that no... it's not practical in reality for you to book a hotel and pay for whatever reason. Repeat ad-nauseum everywhere daily
> Want to buy some cigarettes while you take a stroll in the evening
Why would you go buy a beedi from the local paan-wala?
> Want a tuktuk to take you a mile across the beautifully walkable road infrastructure
Why would you call an auto or e-rickshaw when you could call and pay for via Uber (which also does autorickshaw pairing)
> 90% of life doesn't exist inside the corpo "work hotel sleep" bubble
OP was talking about "business travel".
> You'd be surprised at how many hotels completely forget that not all customers are Indian+Aadhaar+UPI
They aren't forgetting. They just don't care about a foreign traveler. It's the same when I travelled to China outside of the foreigner bubble on multiple occasions
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At the end of the day, foreigner who can afford India1 but is consuming like India3 is a waste. Doesn't matter if it's a backpacker or a kanjusi NRI.
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