Online wallet is used to store money, send and receive money to make purchases digitally and keep a record of your transaction without the need for a physical presence.
In recent years, the Indian government make efforts to fight black money by going cashless and reducing the dependence on physical transactions.
Mobile wallet is linked to your bank account, there is a know your customer verification done and your debit or credit card data is stored securely online to make online payment possible.
We can use Mobile wallets such as Paytm, UPI, Google pay, mobikwik free charge etc. to pay electricity bills, Mobile recharge , credit and debit card bill payments
There is no doubt that mobile wallets were made to benefit the consumer but the reality is that there are some obstacles that are proving to be a challenge for the mobile wallet companies.
Here are some of the problems and solutions that are needed to improve use of mobile wallets:
One possible solution is having mobile service providers participate in bringing mobile wallets to those who do not have access to bank services at their place of residence.
2. Verification: The know your customer procedure done by banks to open an account, one has to do this process while opening an account with mobile wallet.
This leads to duplication and waste of time, one cannot have a bank account without completing the Know your customer, since we are linking a verified account, why do we need to repeat the process again.
3. Fraud: one can find multiple apps that claim that you can play games and win cash, most of them are fake and are a waste of time.
Unfortunately, if you post a complaint, there is no reply from the customer service who exist only in theory, sites like Paytm for example are the worst, they are present on social media sites and never answer to a comment made on their services.
4. Acceptance: acceptance by businesses as a mode of payment is a problem, although the situation has improved, one can see Paytm, Google pay, Amazon pay and mobikwik accepted, it is still not accepted everywhere.
There is no easy solution to this, ultimately it depends upon the customer, there are so many modes of payment, they need to be convinced that online wallet payments work better than others.
5. Discounts: Online wallets attract users with cashback and discounts, this is good but it depends upon how you make use of these benefits while making purchases as it to lead to spending over the limit.
This is not easy to resolve but for the benefit of the users, the online wallets need to keep customers informed about their spending habits so they can decide if they are doing the right thing.
Online wallets are here to stay, they are evolving and there are challenges to overcome before it becomes the preferred method of payment in the country.
