Google Pay charging up to Rs 3 convenience fee for mobile recharges in India: report

Convenience fee for mobile recharges on Google Pay

• A Google Pay user, Ankush, reported on DesiDime forums that Google Pay is now charging an additional convenience fee for mobile recharges, specifically noting a Rs 3 extra charge on a Rs 749 Jio recharge. 91Mobiles hasn't independently verified the claim.
• He clarified that the payment was made through UPI, ruling out the possibility of the extra charge being related to credit card payments, where some apps include a small surcharge as a payment gateway fee.

• Currently, as per reports, Google Pay is applying this fee solely to mobile recharges, while other transactions like electricity bill payments remain free. UPI transactions for personal and merchant use also remain free without additional charges.
• It's noteworthy that Google Pay follows the lead of other apps like PhonePe and Paytm, which introduced a convenience fee on mobile and other recharges a few months ago.

Google Pay imposes convenience fee based on the following structure:

• Up to Rs 100: No fee is charged.
• Rs 101 - 200: A fee of Rs 1 is applied.
• Rs 201 - 300: Users are charged Rs 2 as a convenience fee.
• Rs 301 and above: A convenience fee of Rs 3 is levied.

While Google has not officially announced the alteration in a convenience fee, there's an update in Google's Terms of Service for India on November 10th, 2023. In this update, a new term, referred to as Google Fees, has been included. It states that users might incur a small fee for mobile recharge transactions.