Payments in India

A week ago I posted on Reddit about five months in Bangalore without a bank account or an easy way to pay for things. The community came back with a lot of advice. I’m trying everything and logging the results here.

This is meant for non-Indian spouses (like me), returning NRIs, and anyone else arriving in India without PAN, Aadhaar, or OCI yet.

The problem

I don’t have PAN, Aadhaar, or OCI yet. That means:

I can’t open a regular Indian bank account. To open an account PAN is required, and while not technically required, Aadhaar is preferred.
Without an account, I have no UPI in my own name.
UPI is how India pays. International credit cards cover roughly 50% of paid transactions. The other 50% (small vendors, autos, neighbourhood shops) needs UPI.

Below are the Reddit-suggested workarounds I'm trying so I can pay for things.

Payments without a Bank Account

⬜ Untried, 🟡 In progress, 🟠 Partial (works but with friction or limits), ✅ Worked, ❌ Didn’t work, ➖ Blocked

Workaround	Status	Notes
International credit card (Capital One Venture X, Chase Sapphire, Citi Strata)	🟠	About 50% of stores. Fails on UPI-only vendors. Currently using.
Send UPI QR to my wife	🟠
Joint account on wife’s bank	➖	Blocked. Wife’s Aadhaar tied to old phone, OTP can’t reach her.
Cash, with change from any bank cashier	🟠	Fallback. Bank ATMs only provide 500 INR notes and most shops don’t have change to give me.
Wife opens second account, UPI linked to my phone	➖	Blocked. Wife’s Aadhaar tied to old phone, OTP can’t reach her.
Add-on credit card on wife’s card	➖	Blocked. Wife’s Aadhaar tied to old phone, OTP can’t reach her.
UPI Circle on PhonePe (“Pocket Money”)	⬜	Wife adds me with a spending limit. Most-recommended option.
UPI Circle on GPay	➖	Same mechanic as PhonePe. Blocked because our iPhone App Store is still set to Canada (to keep canadian banking apps) and GPay is not available on that app store.
UPI Circle on Paytm	➖	Passport rejected (non-Indian). Ontario DL accepted. Final step rejected because wife’s account is NRO, not resident. Converting needs Aadhaar OTP, which is tied to her old phone number, so also blocked.
Mony app	⬜	UPI app that loads via international cards. Works with non-Indian phone.
PhonePe or Paytm wallet, top up with international card	⬜	Mixed acceptance per others.
Amazon Pay wallet, load via wife’s account	⬜	Up to ₹10,000 without docs.
Wise multi-currency Visa debit	⬜	More useful for paying internationally than for UPI-only Indian vendors.

What's blocking some of these workarounds

Opening a Bank Account

Once I have an Indian bank account, this whole problem goes away.

Two useful facts before you start:

Table of Contents

The problem

Payments without a Bank Account

What's blocking some of these workarounds

Opening a Bank Account