As you know that we are living in the digital world. As our purchasing pattern changes from local stores to online, the way we pay money has also changed a lot in recent years. Especially after the mobile industry revolution the way we buy and pay has changed a lot. The digital wallet is the new concept in India and is still emerging day by day. It is surpassing the plastic money and gradually replacing the traditional payment methods.
Digital payments in India is currently less than $200 billion, out of which mobile is just at $10 billion. As per the Credit Suisse report, the digital payment industry will grow to $1 trillion by the end of 2023. According to Credit Suisse report, almost 70% of the all payments in value and 90% in volume are currently made through cash in India.
With the launched of Reliance Jio which has change mobile industry and is offering high-speed data at very affordable rates, availability of smartphones at a cheap price has helped boost up the mobile-based transaction.
With the increase in the e-commerce company, it is more useful to pay online by using a mobile wallet. Gone are teh days when you need to have the cash for paying at retail outlets. You can pay to anyone with just a click. People are using smartphones to transfer money from one account to another account.
What is a Digital Wallet?
It is a virtual wallet where you can store money in the digital form. you can transfer money online or offline with the help of digital wallet. It is also known as a mobile wallet or e-wallet. The main benefit of using a mobile wallet is the ease of doing a transaction with just a click. Most of the mobile wallets are also offering discounts and cashback on the digital transaction.
A mobile wallet is a simple virtual wallet where one can store cash for making a purchase at a later stage. There are various types of mobile wallet like open-ended, closed-ended, semi-open, semi-closed. Wallets are growing rapidly as it is very convenient for making payments at outlets without having physical cash in your pocket.
Benefits of digital wallet
- Instant payments with just a click
- It’s a prepaid account so there is no chance of declining payment
- No need to log in into your bank account for making payment
- Avail discount offers and cashback
- You can transfer money from one wallet to another wallet
- Safe and secure like a bank account
Drawbacks of Digital wallet
- Some of the wallets don’t offer to withdraw your money
- You will not get any interest on the balance lying in your wallet
- Not possible to transfer funds from one wallet company to another
- You may spend more as payment transactions are easy and you get discount/deals
Here are the top mobile wallet companies in India
Paytm ∗∗∗∗∗
Paytm is one of the most popular digital wallets in India. It has the highest subscriber base (350 million) in the digital wallet industry. It is semi-closed wallet offers e-commerce transactions, mobile recharge, utility bill payments, movie/train/bus ticket booking, money transfer and much more.
It offers mobile payment solutions to over 7 million merchants and allows customers to make mobile payments from cards, banks.
Benefits of Paytm wallet
- Fast and secure payments
- Pay utility bills, mobile recharge, DTH recharge
- Pay over 5 million paytm merchants
- Amazing deals on travel and movie ticket booking
Mobikwik ∗∗∗∗
Mobikwik is another leading digital wallet which helps you to do mobile recharge, bill payments, bus ticket booking and much more. It is no.2 player in the mobile wallet in India. It has a network of around 3 million direct merchants. It caters to 140+ billers and 107 million users. It records 1 million transactions per day. The company was founded in the year 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh & Upasana Taku.
It has recently acquired Clearfund to foray into the investment industry. The wallet balance can be used for mobile recharge, bill payments, movie ticket booking, payments to groceries as well as online and offline retail stores. You can also transfer money to family and friends at no extra cost.
This year Mobikwik has rolled out an innovative product called “boost” which offers instant loan disbursal in less than 90 seconds. It is the first company to offer a loan in a mobile wallet. The company will also be rolling out other financial services like insurance in the coming year.
PhonePe ∗∗∗
PhonePe is BHIM UPI based mobile app to provide cashless and seamless payments in India. The app is by Flipkart. It is a semi-closed wallet offers multiple merchant payments. It also allows making payment using QR code.
Send money, do mobile recharge, pay utility bills, shopping, travel and more. You have to just link your bank account with the app once. The benefit of this app is your money is in your bank and not in the wallet. So you will earn interest on the balance in your bank account. It offers great cash back and deals on making payment through the app.
The App is having 118 million active users having 3 lakhs offline merchants. It has reached $110 million transaction value in August 2018.
Freecharge ∗∗∗
Freecharge is a subsidiary of Axis Bank Limited and India’s leading payment app. You can use freecharge for mobile recharge, bill payment, DTH recharge. It has launched its wallet service in September 2015 and its wallet is acceptable at offline stores like Shoppers Stop, McDonald’s, Cinepolis, Crossword and many more. It has also launched an innovative social payment service called chat-n-pay. You can chat with friends, family, and merchants and pay money in less than 5 seconds.
The app offers easy and instant recharge of mobile, DTH. It also offers various deals and discounts without any complex terms and conditions.
ICICI Pockets ∗∗∗
Pockets by ICICI bank is a Visa powered e-wallet that customers of any bank can use to recharge mobile, send money, shop anywhere, pay utility bills and much more. It also offers physical shopping card which can be used to shop on any website or retail stores like you use your debit/credit card. With Pockets, you can transfer money not only to the bank account but also to a mobile number, e-mail ID, WhatsApp contacts, Google+ or facebook ID or you can simply tap and pay your friends.
Pockets have introduced ‘Touch 7 Pay’ payment solution to allow you to make payments at stores through your ICICI bank debit or credit card with the help of your mobile phone. You just have to tap your NFC (near field communication) enabled smartphone at merchant terminal to pay. It has a wide network of more than 60000 merchants. You can add money to pockets wallets from any bank’s account. You can transfer funds to your Pockets wallet through NEFT from any bank account.
Conclusion:
There are many other digital wallets available in the market like Airtel money, Payzapp, Amazon Pay, Oxygen pay, Vodafone m-paisa etc. But above mentioned 5 are the best wallets available in India.
You should use any of them and take advantage of new age technology and cashback offers. If you are using any one of the above wallets, please share your experience with me in the comment section.
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