Uber Updates

So, I took two rides in Uber today with dad using his account and I noticed something that might explain what went wrong with his account. As I have already mentioned that I added gift balance to his account so that he does not have to pay cash.

The interesting thing about Uber Credits is that it is shown as Cash during the booking. Credits are part of cash. Driver gets to see that rider would pay by cash. In fact, at the end of both the rides today, the driver was kind of baffled to see Rs. 0 on his phone’s display. They were expecting the ride charge to be shown. Took a while to explain to them that the money was already paid using my Uber credits. First driver actually checked the receipt of the ride. Second driver was more like Ah ok cool.

So here is what I am thinking. These drivers accepted the ride assuming that they would be paid cash. At the end of the ride they did not get any cash. They were either disappointed or confused about the actual payment. And might have ended up rating dad 1 Star in that moment of confusion.

It’s kind of annoying that Uber Credits are not given their own payment listing. Uber drivers have no idea that gift card is a thing and they appear as cash payment on their dashboard. Dad still has around 800 left in his Credits account. I guess I would not be adding more and would switch him to UPI.

I guess, if you pay via Paytm and select the option to use credits, it would show the driver the payment method, and you'll still end up emptying your credits, but the Paytm still keeps your money on hold and gives it back after completing the ride.

I am using uber credit for past 2 months, but never encountered any problem(took rides of about 6k, mostly small 5-6Km rides) and my rating also went up from 4.6 to 4.73 so I assume the driver also had no problems

You selected cash as payment mode while booking? 😁

It was upi

Right so they were not really expecting cash payment at the end of the ride.

so checked dad's account. upi is STILL NOT available as payment option. he does not really use Paytm and keeping 350 in it just for uber makes no sense. the only other option is card payment. i guess i can turn that on just to avoid showing cash payment at the time of booking. kind of insane that they still have not enabled upi on all accounts even now.

Don't know about card payment but in UPI, the ride ends without payment confirmation, you can accept it after the ride so what happens if one takes a expensive ride say 5-6k rupees and never accepts the UPI collect request?
Maybe that's why it's not enabled in all accounts.

upi 2.0 has money holding feature like what Paytm is doing on uber. but i am not sure if anyone is able to use that feature at the moment. tbh, credit card has the same problem. person can refuse to pay at the end of the ride. yet it is available from day one on uber. you do not pay on credit card on the spot. it just appears as pending payment and you can pay at your convenience. even using another payment method.

Then there seems to be no reason to not have UPI on some accounts.

yup. especially now that upi 2.0 is available with money hold feature.

Capture and hold facility
The facility to block a certain amount in user’s cards was already present due to a feature called ‘key auth’. Now, merchants accepting payments via UPI will also be able to do the same. Essentially, they will be able to block a certain amount of money on their user’s cards and debit/refund it a later date. With this feature, UPI will become useful for a variety of business verticals (where it may not have been as popular before). Hotels, e-commerce companies, cab-booking services can block amounts on their guests’ credit cards as advance. This can also be done against security. Businesses can then refund the same once the booking is completed. This will also be of use when buying stocks or IPOs and other such transactions.

Click to expand...

UPI 2.0 – New Features, Missing Links, and the Effect on Indian Businesses

one useful thing that seems to have been added in recent weeks is that you can now prevent uber credits to be used in case you want to pay using another method. the option is available in the payments menu where you can disable credits. i do not think this was available at launch.

i think it's ola that does not allow credit cards on new accounts. they force cash or ola money.

live location update feature is something i noticed this week. not sure when this was added.

Off topic - UPI 2.0 launched? How to update it?