PAID AND ZERO-COST SERVICES OF DIGITAL PAID AND ZERO-COST DIGITAL PAYMENT: CONSUMER PERCEPTION AND ITS EFFECT ON SPENDING BEHAVIOR IN URBAN INDIA

The high rate of development of the digital payment ecosystem in India has triggered a paradigm shift in consumer financing especially in cities. This paper examines the difference in consumer perception of free digital payment services (mainly the Unified Payments Interface also known as UPI) and paid online payment services (including credit cards, transaction fee-based wallets and premium banking services). Through a mixed-methods method, the study examines the role of the not being charged on the psychological pain of paying and then on expenditure behavior. The results indicate that free services create an atmosphere of frictionless expenditure, which leads to the emergence of micro-transactions and impulsive discretionary consumption at a massive rate. In contrast, paid services, although commonly viewed as higher security value or reward value may produce a cognitive tax which prompts more considered high-value purchasing. The paper finds that the democratization of the zero-cost payments in urban India has not only significantly reshaped the mental accounting operation of consumers but also has caused a significant transformation in the general level of consumption but also has tested the conventional financial discipline.