
UPI ID linked to inactive mobile number? With this move of NPCI, it will be hard to misuse your UPI ID with recycled number
UPI ID linked with a mobile number you dont use, or have anymore? It has not been an easy task to delink such an inactive mobile number from the UPI ID. However, going ahead, you will be able to remove, or de-link your mobile number from this UPI ID, even if you do not have that mobile number in your possession anymore.
Before the end of this month (i.e., before March 31, 2025), all UPI banks and PSPs (payment service providers) will have to update their database with regards to recycled, or churned, numbers, to “reduce the chances of errors due to churned mobile numbers,” per a recent NPCI circular dated March 2025.
Moreover, this will not be a one-off updation process. As the circular further notes, NPCI requires its member apps and banks to at least bring their mobile number databases up to date at least once a week, so that recycled, or churned-out, numbers are identified and weeded out more frequently. For this purpose, “the Banks, PSP apps shall use the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL)/Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP),” the circular adds.
How will this impact you? We break it down for you.
What are recycled or churned-out numbers?
Guidelines issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) stipulate that a mobile number that has been disconnected, can be reallocated to a new subscriber after a gap of 90 days, or 3 months. Generally, if a subscriber makes no calls or texts, or does not use data on a particular mobile number for 3 months, it is deactivated by the telecom service provider.
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