Paytm

Is Paytm safe?

For UPI payments today, the Paytm app is about as safe as other UPI apps. Your money stays in your own bank until you pay, every payment needs your UPI PIN, and since March 2024 Paytm works through four large banks. Its record is the problem. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restricted the group's Paytm Payments Bank in 2022 and 2024 and cancelled its licence in April 2026, which ended the wallets, FASTags and bank accounts that many app users had. We score Paytm 53/100, below PhonePe (59) and well below Google Wallet.

This page scores the app, run by One97 Communications. Paytm Payments Bank was a separate bank in the same group, and we describe it here only for what it meant for app users.

What happened to Paytm Payments Bank?

The RBI told Paytm Payments Bank to stop adding new customers on 11 March 2022. On 31 January 2024 it went further, saying a system audit had revealed "persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns". It ordered the bank to stop taking deposits and top-ups into accounts, wallets and FASTags, to stop UPI and fund transfers, and to close the nodal accounts that One97 used to settle merchant payments. A 16 February 2024 order moved the deadline to 15 March 2024 and kept withdrawals open.

On 24 April 2026 the RBI cancelled the bank's licence. It said the bank's affairs were run in a way that harmed depositors, that the "general character of the management" was against depositors' and the public interest, and that the bank had broken its licence conditions. The Delhi High Court ordered the bank wound up in orders of 8 and 22 July 2026 and appointed a former State Bank of India official as liquidator. The RBI says the bank has enough liquidity to repay all its deposits.

For app users this meant real disruption: wallet balances could no longer be topped up, FASTags issued by the bank stopped working for new recharges, and salary or subsidy credits into Paytm bank accounts had to move elsewhere. The app itself also lost the right to sign up new UPI users until NPCI approved it again on 22 October 2024.

How Paytm UPI works now

On 14 March 2024 NPCI made One97 a third-party app provider, like PhonePe and Google Pay, with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank as its payment banks. The old @paytm handle moved to Yes Bank. When you pay, money moves from the bank account you linked to the other person's bank, so it keeps the protection of your own bank. NPCI's October 2024 approval came with conditions on risk management, customer data and compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act.

What data does Paytm collect?

Apple's privacy label is lighter than most payment apps we have scored. It shows no data used to track you across other companies' apps. It links coarse location, contacts, name, phone number, payment information and photos to your identity, and uses device IDs, not linked to you, for third-party advertising and Paytm's own marketing. Google Play's data safety section claims Paytm collects only name, email and contacts and shares nothing with third parties, which is hard to square with an app that also sells loans, insurance and investments through partners.

The privacy policy says much more. The live version, still dated 10 July 2024 when we read it in October 2026, covers contacts and call logs, your SIM serial number, IMEI, device location and the transactional and promotional SMS and app notifications on your phone, along with Aadhaar, PAN, income and employment details for some products and recordings of calls with customer care. It lists showing you relevant advertisements, offers and location-based services among the uses, and rules out tracking or targeted ads based on children's data. The policy shares data with affiliates, payment processors and other partners on a need-to-know basis and promises not to sell it, but Paytm's terms add that you authorise it to share your name, mobile number and other data with third parties for marketing and promotions and to use your transaction data for cross-selling. Because the policy is far broader than the label, we score privacy on the policy. India's DPDP Rules, notified on 14 November 2025, will require clearer consent notices from about May 2027.

UPI scams on Paytm

Paytm users face the same scams as every UPI user. India recorded 12.64 lakh UPI fraud incidents worth ₹981 crore in 2024-25 across all apps, and ₹805 crore in the first eight months of 2025-26, the Finance Ministry told Parliament. The patterns repeat: a QR code is presented as a way to get a refund, a fake customer-care number asks you to install a screen-sharing app, or a "buyer" says you must enter your PIN to receive money. The old fake-buyer collect request is gone: NPCI told banks and apps in a circular of 29 July 2025 to stop processing person-to-person collect requests from 1 October 2025, so only merchants can send them now. Entering your PIN always sends money.

How to use Paytm safely

1. Never enter your UPI PIN to receive money, and never share it or an OTP.
2. Check your current UPI ID in the app if you used an old @paytm handle.
3. Do not keep money in any old Paytm Payments Bank wallet or account; follow the liquidator's notices for any remaining balance.
4. Approve a payment request only for a purchase you started yourself, and get help only from inside the app.
5. Report fraud at once on 1930 and to your bank.

How we scored it

Security (65) is Paytm's strongest factor, for the PIN-based UPI design and a clean breach record. Regulatory record (40) is the weakest: the RBI's actions were aimed at the bank, but they cut off products app users relied on and stopped the app adding UPI users for most of 2024. Privacy (48) follows the policy, not the lighter label: it reaches call logs, SMS and device identifiers, and the terms allow marketing use of your name and number.