Google enables utility bill payments on Tez

NEW DELHI: Google India on Monday announced that via its digital payments app, Tez, users can pay their bills within minutes, without any transaction charges.

Starting with support for more than 80 billers, including national and state electricity providers, gas, water, DTH and mobile postpaid bills and recharge. The new bill pay feature will include major utilities like Reliance Energy, BSES and DishTV, and in total will cover all states and major metros in India.

For recurring bill payments, Tez will send users you a timely notification when their bill arrives, and users will be able to check whether they have paid a bill by simply tapping the biller’s name on their Tez home screen. 

It will enable users to view all past payments grouped by bill, as well as manage bills from multiple accounts. Built to support Bharat BillPay system, for most utilities Tez will also let users get an alert when a new bill comes in.

“Today, we are adding a specially designed bill pay experience in Tez which will enable users to make a wide range of bill payments including electricity, water, gas, DTH, and insurance from the app. We hope that users will like the simplicity and time saving with the new bill pay experience on Tez,” said Diana Layfield, VP, Payments and Commerce, Next Billion Users.

Customers will see different billers depending on their city and region, and users can also search for them by name. Once users have located their biller, they need to enter the number associated with their account to link it to Tez and give it an easy name to remember.

Once users have linked their account, for most utility bills Tez will automatically fetch any available bills. Users need to just tap on New Payment and then pay bills.

Built on the Indian government-supported Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Tez is a simple and secure mobile app for digital payments, built with the goal of making digital payments as easy as using cash.

Tez’s Cash Mode securely sends money from person to person with just a few taps. By pressing and holding the Cash Mode buttons at the same time, two people using Tez are able to make a secure transaction in seconds without needing to share private details like phone numbers or account numbers. This happens through Google’s proprietary Audio QR (AQR) ultrasound technology. Recipients receive the amount deposited to their bank account instantly.

Tez syncs with the contact list in users’ phones, in accordance with their privacy settings. This way, users can start a transaction just by searching for a friend’s name or phone number. Once a contact is on Tez, users do not have to add beneficiaries or enter bank account number and IFSC codes. If the other person is not on Tez or in the phone contact list, then users can still pay them with their bank account number or UPI ID. Transaction history with each person is grouped together like a conversation, thus making it easier to find a particular transaction.

Tez is accepted by businesses that accept UPI. It works with over 50 UPI-enabled banks, so that money stays in users’ bank accounts until they need to use it. Tez users continue to earn interest from their banks and have their deposits backed by bank security guarantees. Currently, there are no charges for transactions done on Tez.

The app is backed by multiple security levels, including dedicated security systems offered by Indian banks, the NPCI, and the Tez Shield — Google’s suite of security features, including a machine-learning-based fraud detection engine, device level protection, including a Google PIN, and no sharing of phone numbers or bank account numbers via Cash Mode.

The platform works on the vast majority of smartphones on both Android and iOS, in English and Hindi. The Android version is available in additional Indian languages such as Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, and Gujarati.