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Out of an abundance of caution, I have changed my phone number at three banks where I have accounts. This has utterly broken UPI for me. The UPI ecosystem treats phone number as primary identity. A new number means you're a new person. The situation is tragi-comic.
SBI let me change phone number online. It sent OTPs to both old and new numbers, and once I keyed them in, I was done. This is shockingly efficient given what follows.
ICICI required me to enter the new phone number at an ATM. They sent confirmation by SMS to both numbers. However, the update has not actually happened. UPI is still active on the old number after two weeks, despite two attempts to change it.
HDFC also required me to use an ATM. I changed it for my personal bank account, but the change has propagated to a credit card issued to my company with a different phone number. Now I'm getting bombarded with SMS alerts for business transactions.
Paytm treats phone number as bank account number. Literally. Since I intend to keep the new number private, limited to sensitive bank use, I've decided to not update Paytm. It can remain on the old number.
I've moved my public number SIM out to a low-end phone that will not have any apps. The bank SIM remains in my current phone. The BHIM app balked at this SIM change and required me to re-verify the new number. HDFC and SBI bank accounts are back, but my @upi VPA is gone.
Since I don't actually want to lose my VPA, I installed BHIM on the low-end supposedly app-free phone, and sure enough my old VPA shows up on it. Lesson: if you let your phone number expire, whoever gets it next also gets your VPA and all money being deposited into it.
Back to old phone with the new bank SIM in it. BHIM works with SBI and HDFC. @GooglePayIndia can't connect to HDFC. Verification results in a mysterious "duplicate request" error SMS. What is this? Thankfully my VPAs aren't lost as they're linked to my Google id, not phone #.
WhatsApp is still on my old phone while the SIM with the number it's linked to is in the new app-free phone. That means I can't use WhatsApp payments anymore. What was by far the best UPI user experience is gone. Unusable by design, for my safety.
@PhonePe_ hasn't recognised that my SIM has changed. It cheerfully insists my bank accounts are linked. Only when I check balance does it ask for re-verification, which succeeds, but then PhonePe refuses to honour it because the bank phone# is different from PhonePe account#.
PhonePe wants me to open a new account with the new number, but I will lose my wallet balance. I have no intention of making the bank phone number available to non-bank entities like merchants. That means I can no longer use UPI with the PhonePe app. Pity.
@kunalb11's CRED app is oblivious to all this. My banks don't appear to have reported my new phone number to credit rating agencies. However, every attempt to pay a credit card bill using UPI fails mysteriously. Net banking works.
@kunalb11 Meet the protagonists. 
@kunalb11 Lesson learnt through this ordeal: the _only_ UPI app that will have your back if you change phone number is @GooglePayIndia (formerly Google Tez), apart from your banks' own crummy apps.
@kunalb11 @GooglePayIndia Bonus: doesn't @Paytm have UPI now? Maybe I should set that up. Turns out whoever coded the SDK used by _all_ @UPI_NPCI apps has not tested it on a small screen. There is no keypad to enter a PIN with. This is supposed to be a product serving the underbanked in India?
@kunalb11 @GooglePayIndia @Paytm @UPI_NPCI Have you moved within India? Don't like paying roaming charges anymore? Want to get a local number? That has now become a lot harder because so many services assume your phone number is your identity for life.
@kunalb11 @GooglePayIndia @Paytm @UPI_NPCI UPI 2.0 supposedly solves the identity problem by using Aadhaar instead of phone number. Because nobody can change their Aadhaar number, by definition. If you happen to be one of those unlucky fellows for whom a second Aadhaar number was issued, welcome to rebooted Life 2.0.
@kunalb11 @GooglePayIndia @Paytm @UPI_NPCI I had to make a project plan to switch phones and change phone numbers, with execution over three weeks and counting. To basically move a SIM card from one phone to another. 🤦♂️ Phone numbers are now identity for all practical purposes.
@kunalb11 @GooglePayIndia @Paytm @UPI_NPCI Update: this particular conjecture may not be accurate as UPI apps can read the subscriber id (IMSI) and choose to not restore VPAs previously associated with the mobile number. In which case, if you port your number you lose your VPAs.🤷♂️ Know better? Tell
@kunalb11 @GooglePayIndia @Paytm @UPI_NPCI For everyone thinking Aadhaar is the solution to this identity problem: 🛑 STOP! Aadhaar numbers also change, but the government insists it doesn't happen, so if you are one of these unlucky people, you will lose everything and no one will believe you.
