Your guide to mobile wallets
Confused about what a
mobile wallet is all about? Here's all that you need to know...
After reading this feature, you will
know why the super annoying habit of giving a candy instead of a rupee coin is doomed
to rest in peace.
The companies that launched mobile
wallet services wanted us to use their services but never bothered to explain
the nitty gritty of this new mode of payment. So, in one of the television
commercials, when an actress asks the viewer to pay through chat, she makes no
sense, which is why we sat down with two experts and asked them to decode the
mobile wallet category for us. Here are the takeaways.
WHAT IS A MOBILE WALLET?
Simply put, it's a mobile-based
virtual wallet, where you preload a certain amount in your account created with
the mobile wallet service provider, and spend it at online and offline
merchants listed with the mobile wallet service provider. For example, if you
go to a coffee shop A, which is listed with XYZ mobile wallet, you can pay for
your coffee through the phone. Depending on the service provider, you can also
pay through app, text message, social media account or website.
TRANSACTIONS YOU CAN MAKE
Anything and everything! Right from
utility payments to e-tailing and offline payments, you can perform most of
your daily transactions.
TYPES OF WALLETS
There are four types of mobile
wallets in India open, semi-open, semi-closed and closed. Open wallets are
the ones that allow you to buy good and services, withdraw cash at ATMs or
banks and transfer funds. These services can only be jointly launched with a
bank. M-Pesa by Vodafone and ICICI is one such example. Apart from the usual
merchant payments, it also allows you to send money to any mobile numberbank account.
Airtel Money is a semi-open wallet, which allows you to transact with merchants
that have a contract with Airtel. You can't withdraw cash or get it back.
You'll have to spend what you load. Then, there are closed accounts, which are
quite popular with e-commerce companies, where a certain amount of money is
locked with the merchant in case of a cancellation or return of the order, or
gift cards. Lastly, there are semi-closed wallets like PayTM, which do not
permit cash withdrawal or redemption, but allow you to buy goods and services
at listed merchants and perform financial services at listed locations.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE MONEY YOU PRELOAD?
Obviously, when you are crediting
money to a mobile wallet, you would want to know what happens to the money till
the time you don't spend it, and is there a possibility that the mobile wallet
service provider can have a free run with the money. Worry not! Reserve Bank of
India, the big daddy of financial providers in India, has a complete set of
guidelines for mobile-based payments, which takes full care of customer's
interests. Explains Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder CEO, PayTM, “When you
register with us, we create an escrow account in which your preloaded amount is
deposited. Only when you make a payment, the respec tive amount is credited to
PayTM account. We don't have any control over your money, so there is no
question of the service provider running away with the customer's money.“
However, not all the wallet types
are required to open an escrow account so it's best that you check it with the
vendor before registering with one.
MERITS
Your wallet can be snatched,
misplaced or pickpocketed, your mobile wallet cannot be. But remember, your
mobile can still be stolen. Secondly, if the bill is of `353.53 or `462.65, you
will not have to run around asking for change, and no one will ever give you a
candy instead of a rupee. Also, mobile wallets allow you to pay in one-tap
unlike net banking that calls for opening several browsers and are time
consuming. Suggests Soma Sundaram, founder CEO, iKaaz, “See, when you make a
payment through net banking or through a debit or credit card, you are
disclosing your sensitive bank data on the merchant's site or establishment; it
can lead to unwanted financial happening. But when you use mobile wallets, you
restrict the exposure of your confidential data, which single-handedly wins the
case for a service like ours.“
The biggest advantage of mobile
wallets is the massive rewards in the form of discounts and cashbacks.
DEMERITS
Only mobile-savvy people (with
dependable and speedy internet connection) can use such services. Also, there
are only a limited number of merchants currently listed, so you will still need
net banking or cash or card. Plus, there is a limit to the amount you can
deposit in mobile wallets and daily spend, which means mobile wallets are
useless for high value payments. Also, considering the dismal battery back-up
of smartphones, you can never be sure whether the phone will be alive even for
that one-tap payment. Major Players: Airtel Money, ikaaz, mRupee, Vodafone
m-Pesa, Oxigen Wallet, Paytm, Mobikwik and Idea Money Experts: Vijay Shekhar
Sharma, Founder CEO, PayTM and Soma Sundaram, Founder CEO, iKaaz
TRUE STORY
According to a tweet, a mobile
payment worked so well for a guy in Bengaluru that he ended up earning `75 for
a dinner he had at a local restaurant.
DATA IN FAVOUR OF M-WALLETS
29% of all online transactions
globally are done on mobile 80% of the world's adult population will have
smartphones by 2020 `1,200 crore plus will be the value of the Indian mobile
wallet market by 2019. The figure stood at `350 crore till last year 30% is the
annual projected growth in the Indian mobile wallet market from 2015 till 2019.
|
kumar saurav2
|
TLM23AUG15
No comments:
Post a Comment