Daybreak - 'I cancelled the trial but I'm still being charged'—the UPI Autopay trap

Episode Date: May 26, 2025

When Rohan, a 35-year-old software engineer, signed up for a Rs 1 trial on a learning app called Seekho, he thought he had nothing to lose. He cancelled the subscription within weeks but money was still being deducted from his account months later.  UPI Autopay, the rising star of India’s subscription economy is quietly letting apps to keep charging users long after they think they've cancelled. From overlooked SMS alerts to sneaky terms hidden in fine print, we find out how widespread this problem really is and why so many users are only waking up to it now.Tune in.P.S The Ken’s podcast team is hiring! Here’s what we’re looking for.Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.Listen to the latest episode of Two by Two here

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcast, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the same. secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they managed to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into.

to the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert, as soon as we release our first episode, please follow Intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode.

Hello, dear listener, I hope you had a good weekend. Me, on the other hand, I've been a little unwell. So today, instead of regular programming, I will be reading out a super interesting edition of the Ken's FinTech newsletter, Kaching for you. I'm Rahil, the co-host of this podcast. And before we jump back in, I just wanted to share some exciting news with you. Daybreak is growing and we are looking to grow our team too.

Now, if you're a journalist who listens to Daybreak and thinks, I wish they'd cover this or I know exactly what would make Daybreak even better, we would love to hear from you. We're looking for somebody who's curious, who's driven and passionate about business and tech news. If that sounds like you or somebody you know, please check out the details in the show notes. Applications are open now and with that, let's get back to the episode. Last week, Rohan, a 35-year-old software engineer who did not want to publicly reveal his last name, noticed a debit notification from his bank. $199 had been deducted from his account by a learning app, Seiko, which he had downloaded

three months ago and started a rupee one free trial on. Except, he had also cancelled it within a few weeks. So why was he being charged now? Frustrated, he checked his bank statement only to discover that this wasn't the first such deduction. Similar amounts had been charged to his account for a couple of months and he had overlooked the SMS notifications sent by his bank for all of them. Rohan's experience is not unique. Across India, numerous others are discovering, or will discover, that they are still being charged for subscriptions that they thought they had cancelled. all activated through the new darling of subscription business.

UPI AutoPay. If you go through the reviews section of so many popular apps on Google Play Store, you will find scores of complaints that mirror Rohan's. Let me read you a few, for example. Sachin Kumar says, Seiko app is a scam. When you buy the subscription, it will not be a one-month subscription. There is a hidden auto-pay option hidden in it, which will get auto-paid from your bank account every month.

avoid subscribing to such apps, thank you. There's another one by Nick H that says there is no clarity on subscriptions. One-R-Pi plan unsubscribed long-time back has caused me losses of $398 through auto-pay mode. However, I was not using the app and unsubscribed it long back. And this is about an app called Stage Films' web series shows. Now, much of this, if you ask civil rights and researchers in the space, is due to dark patterns that remain rampant in India's internet economy.

Specifically, something called a subscription trap. This is how the Central Consumer Protection Authority, or CCPA, established in 2020 by the Indian government to regulate matters related to consumer right violations and unfair trade practices defines a subscription trap. Making cancellation of a paid subscription impossible or a complex and lengthy process. process, or hiding the cancellation option for a subscription, or forcing a user to provide payment details or authorization for auto-debets for availing a free subscription, or making the instructions related to cancellation of subscription ambiguous, latent, confusing, and

cumbersome. UPI auto-pay options seem particularly prone to such dark patterns. After 2021, when the Reserve Bank of India introduced new rules making requirements, making recurring card payments more difficult, UPI Auto Pay has offered the simplest process for activating recurring payments for subscriptions, just a phone number and an OTP and your setup. In fact, many services like Amazon Prime and Google One are eliminating one-time payment options entirely and offering only automatic renewals. On many apps, UPI Auto Pay is the only payment option that shows up. But this ease isn't very apparent when customers initiate cancellations.

Among the apps attracting complaints from users for such practices are pretty popular ones like KukuFM, Good Score, Stage and SICO, all of which boasts users in millions. According to the founder of SICO, Rohit Chaudhury, 100% of their subscribers use UPI AutoPay, which the app has adopted as its only payment mode for subscriptions. And 95% of KukuFM users have set up UPI AutoPay, says co-founder Lal Chand Bissu, who adds that it is the primary payment option because of a, and I quote, conscious decision based on how digital payments and recurring billing have evolved in India. The process to start a trial with UPI Auto Pay is very simple. Download the app, enter your phone number, verify by OTP, and start a trial by paying one or two rupees. Even at this stage, some say that they did not realize that they are setting up recurring payments.

But even if we believe that such aggrieved users should have paid proper attention, things aren't so easy to shrug off when it comes to cancellations. In many cases, users trying to cancel autopay find the process way more complicated than when they signed up, or worse, entirely ineffective as my colleagues and I found out recently. Take the Kuku FM app, which has a nice big button with red font saying cancel subscription. When we clicked that button, we were redirected to a page that makes it apparent that the subscription has been cancelled. But when we checked on the UPI app, we found that the auto pay subscription was still active. Asking the customer care chatbot only resulted in another five-step process, which, after it failed, resulted in a direction to quote.

all customer care on the phone. This was also true for the three other apps that I mentioned earlier. According to a software engineer working in the sector who did not want to be named, this happens because when a user cancels a subscription through an app, the app is supposed to notify payment gateways like Razor Pay to stop the automatic deductions. Some platforms, they said, simply do not follow through on this crucial step. Or make the process to get there difficult for users. When asked why some users have charges deducted even after canceling their subscription,

Kuku FM's Lal Chand Bissu said that they were, and I quote, aware of this problem and actively listen to our customers when they share this feedback with us. This forms a very small pool of our overall customer base. End quote. Seekos Chaudhry for his part said, and I quote again, users who cancel their subscription through the app or support are never charged again, as we do not trigger any further payment requests. However, in rare instances, users may have reinitiated a subscription unknowingly.

Our support team actively monitors such situations and resolves them promptly, including issuing refunds when necessary. Chaudhry also said that they are fundamentally against dark patterns and that users can cancel effortlessly. Good score and stage, however, did not respond to the Ken's queries. In 2023, the Department of Consumer Affairs released guidelines aimed at regulating dog patterns. But Pranav Bidare, a researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society, says that the regulation is still catching up.

He said, and I quote, the intent by the regulator to avoid dog patterns and protect people from harm is there. But in terms of practice, there is still a lot of legal development that needs to happen. End quote. Until then, though, the most of the most of the law. effective solution for users is vigilance and proactive management. Regularly check your UPI apps for active auto pay mandates, even for services you believe you've cancelled. Consider using only one app for auto pay to better track subscriptions. Maybe even maintain two bank accounts,

one for serious investments and savings and another one for expenses. Bidari says one should never use their primary bank account for digital payments. Perhaps, most importantly, pay attention to SMS notifications from your bank, which is supposed to send you alerts for upcoming deductions. Companies also claim to send such SMS notifications 24 hours before the transaction. Chaudhry says, and I quote, users receive alerts one day before payment deduction as per NPCI guidelines, and the UPI Auto Pay Mandate screen clearly indicates it is for a recurring transaction.

He also said, for complete transparency, they send reminders before subscription expiry and clearly display subscription start and end dates in the app. But none of that, of course, really helps with actually canceling subscriptions on many apps right now. That remains, if you believe one Reddit review, like finding an exit in a maze where they keep moving the walls. Have you come across any dark patterns too? Write to Kiching at the rate the can.com and let Pranati know or leave you. a comment on our website or on our app. That is all for today, dear listener.

Thank you for tuning in and we will catch you again tomorrow. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. To subscribe, head to the Ken.com and click on the Reds subscribe button on top of the Ken website.

Today's episode was hosted by Snigda Sharma and edited by Rajiv Sien.