Google Pay simplifies Utility Payments: Easy guide to paying electricity, water and DTH bills online

Long queues, manual receipts, and waiting for your bills to get paid are things of the past with digital payment apps right at our fingertips. As per recently updated tech guides on the internet, Google Pay is one of the easiest platforms in the market for making electricity, water, DTH and other utility bill payments throughout India(BHARAT).

As the app has integrated a majority of the major utility providers in the country into its ecosystem, you can pay your bill with just a few taps on your smartphone.
From electricity, water, broadband, gas to DTH and more, the platform has got you covered, so there’s no need to visit separate web portals or offline payment counters for every utility.

Why is Google Pay a great app to pay your bills with?

Google Pay’s ease of use is further complemented by a number of other factors that make it particularly attractive as a one-stop shop for bill payments. The app’s interface is clean and easy to navigate, offers support for multiple banks, and sends users reminders for bills when they are due. This (coupled with the ability to track transaction history), makes it less likely to miss out on making a payment.
Additionally, there are often bonuses such as cashback, rewards, or scratch-card offers that users can avail when they make payments for bills via digital wallets or UPI apps.

Digitizing bill payments is a part of the larger change in customer behaviour: household utilities are increasingly being made akin to regular digital transactions, similar to a UPI transfer or a mobile recharge.

Simple Steps to follow for Paying your Bills on Google Pay

In a guide, Gadgets 360 walks users through a total of 9 simple steps to make a bill payment in the app:

• Launch Google Pay on your Android or iOS smartphone.
• Tap on “Bills and Payments” or on “Bill Payments” under Services.
• Select the category of your choice for bill payments: Electricity, Water, Gas, Broadband, DTH, or Mobile Postpaid.
• Choose your preferred utility service provider from a list (for example, your local electricity distribution board, water utility provider, or DTH operator).
• Fill in your Customer ID, Consumer Number or Account Number if required.
• Click on “Link Account” and then link your utility account; the app will auto-fill any outstanding bills for you, if available.
• Verify the outstanding amount and choose a payment option, which is typically your bank account via UPI.
• Tap “Pay Bill” and authenticate with your UPI PIN.

Once payment is confirmed, a notification and a receipt are instantly sent to your phone; additionally, you may receive cashback or a reward depending on eligibility.

In Google Pay’s FAQ, they also mention that while the payment is instant from their end, it may take up to 3 working days for the amount to be updated in the official records with the utility service provider.

Other things to keep in mind while Paying Bills on Google Pay

An important thing to note: While Google Pay mentions that no fees are charged when bills are paid through UPI on their website, they also mention a “convenience fee” that can be charged if you use a different payment method such as a credit or debit card.

Recent reports have pegged this fee to be around 0.5% to 1% of the total transaction value (plus applicable GST) for certain bill payments made through card.

Hence, it would be best to use UPI-linked bank account payments within Google Pay to avoid this fee.

Wrapping up

In summary, if you are one of the many people who have to pay several different bills in a month such as electricity, water, DTH and broadband bills – Google Pay can be a seamless, secure, and unified way to get them all done, right from your home. The app’s user-friendly interface, the extensive support for a wide range of providers, and additional benefits including reminders or cashback are making it a popular choice among India(BHARAT)n households for digital payments.