Friday, August 25, 2017

A complete guidance of digital wallet in India

Mobile wallet, digital wallet, and e-wallet are being very common terminologies in India. A large number of Indian people are using a smart phone. A large portion of that population is below thirty years old. They use to buy many things online. Many eCommerce websites are coming up each day and selling their products and services online. Nowadays you can even purchase your daily groceries online. So the use of cash is decreasing and Indian economy is moving towards cashless transactions era. If you have a digital wallet or mobile money, then you can do your online transactions very easily without disclosing your credit card or debit card details. Now, what is Mobile wallet or digital wallet or eWallet? Many people are still not using such wallets and many people are doing online transactions but they do not have any clear idea of Mobile wallets and its classification. So this post may be helpful for them.



What is digital wallet?

The digital wallet is sometimes called as mobile wallet or e-wallet. It's a wallet offered by a service provider who can be a bank or any other nonbanking organization and users will load the wallet with money before spending. All these transactions happen under the umbrella of National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) under the guidance of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Bank' Association (NBA). Oxigen Wallet, SBI Buddy, Paytm, momoe, PayUMoney, Mobikwik, Citi MasterPass, FreeCharge, LIME, Airtel Money, Vodafone m-pesa, Chillr, ICICI Pockets are example of very popular digital wallet in India.

What are the types of digital wallet?

Digital wallets are classified based on cash withdrawal or redemption feature and kind of merchants where all those loaded money can be spent. Digital wallets are generally classified as open wallet, closed wallet and semi closed wallet.

Open Wallet: You can buy products or services as well as withdraw cash from ATMs or partner's outlets. Example - ICICI Pockets, SBI Buddy, Vodafone m-pesa etc.

Closed Wallet: You can only buy products or services from that merchant only and can not withdraw cash. Example freecharge etc.

Semi Closed Wallet: You can buy products or services from its partner merchants only but can not withdraw cash from ATMs or any outlets. Example- Paytm Wallet, Oxigen Wallet etc.

Why will you have a digital wallet? Advantages of such wallet :

Firstly, you can intelligently avoid carrying cash.

Secondly, it solves the problem of asking change by the merchants and vendors at the time of payment.

Thirdly, you can avoid disclosing your credit card and debit card details at the time of transactions.

Fourthly, you can get many discount coupons, vouchers at the time of using a mobile wallet.

Finally, you can give mobile wallet to your children, wife or other relatives and avoid giving them cash for some purpose, particularly for children.

Why still many people are not using digital wallet despite of such wonderful features?

Digital wallet is very effective financial tool what offers a convenient way of online transaction and protects users from online fraud. But still many people who do online transactions frequently are not using any of such digital wallets or mobile money. As per different studies and my personal view points, this happens due to two main reasons.


  • Firstly, many people are not comfortable in using smart phones.
  • Secondly, you can not use your mobile wallet for all merchants or vendors.

Please check my previous posts where I discussed about Oxigen Wallet, ICICI Pockets, SBI Buddy, Paytm etc. You may share your experience or view point related to digital wallet by leaving a comment here.

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