WhatsApp is one of the most downloaded apps in India. There are millions of users of WhatsApp in India. Whatsapp has brought up different services to help businesses transacting and communicating with their customers. You can talk to your customers, showcase your product and services, take customer feedback, and much more. This is helpful to the service industry like banking and telecom. Most of the banks are now providing services on Whatsapp mobile app. WhatsApp Banking is one such service provided by the banks to their customers through which they can check account balance and perform many other tasks like a request for cheque book, check the status of the cheque issued.
What is WhatsApp Banking?
Whatsapp banking is the banking service provided through the Whatsapp mobile app. Bank needs to register themselves with Whatsapp business services. By registering these services banks will be able to provide various services to their customers. These services are free of cost to the customers.
The customer has to register themselves for the first time to use these services offered by the banks. The user needs to send the shortcodes to the designated mobile number. In turn, they will get the desired outcome like balance check, mini statement, cheque status, nearest bank branch location, and many more.
Whatsapp business app provides the facility to interact with the users based on the input given in the chat. It is like an AI-based chatbot that has pre-defined commands. The user just has to save the WhatsApp number in his phone book and start chatting as they do for one to one chat.
WhatsApp banking can perform many functions like opening a new bank account, checking account balance, confirm payment, apply for a new cheque book.
Banks can offer their services via WhatsApp banking and save on the customer serving cost. They can send the new products and offers via WhatsApp to their customers.
Follow below steps to use WhatsApp banking services.
- Save the bank’s WhatsApp number to your mobile’s phone book. Remember the Whatsapp service can only be activated on the registered mobile no. that you have linked to your bank account.
- Start a normal chat like sending “Hi” or “Hello” in the chatbox. In no time, you will receive the welcome message from the bank.
- Along with the welcome message from the bank, there is a list of features that the bank’s WhatsApp service is providing.
- Select any of the services/features you want by sending the corresponding number against the service in the list.
- You will receive another message from the bank based on the service/feature you have selected.
What are the services available on WhatsApp Banking?
Below is the list of services available on the WhatsApp Banking. Most of the banks are offering basic services on the WhatsApp.
- Check balance, transaction history
- Mini account statement
- Block/Unblock Debit/credit card
- Apply for new credit card or loan
- Pay bills
- Open Fixed deposit account
- Discount offers around you
- find ATM or branch
- Cheque book request
ICICI Bank WhatsApp Banking Service
Let’s check the services offered by ICICI WhatsApp Banking.
The WhatsApp banking number for ICICI bank is +91 86400 86400
I am a ICICI bank customer so I have already opted for their WhatsApp banking service. I will share my own account screenshot and menu for ICICI WhatsApp Banking.
Below is the message I got as soon as I typed in “Hi” in the chat box.
As you can see in above message, I got the menu list where I can choose the next option. There are 11 services offered by ICICI bank.
What I like here is they have also provided the specific KEYWORD along with the menu number.
for example, if I want to pay bills, I can type either menu number 5 or simply type in “Pay Bills”. It will ask me to type in the utility for which I want to pay the bill.
Let’s select Electricity bill payment.
As soon as I typed “Electricity” it has asked me to select the electricity board name. Since I am living in Ahmedabad-Gujarat, I have selected Torrent Power.
Then it has asked me to provide the city name for which the bill payment needs to be paid.
The next step is to enter the service number of my electricity meter connection. Once I have the outstanding amount on my screen, I can pay the bill amount directly from my bank account.
Similarly, you can check the details about your ICICI bank credit card and pay the bill.
WhatsApp Banking FAQs
In case you lost your phone, you can deactivate the WhatsApp serivce immediately by informing the call centre of the bank. Moreover, whatsapp banking is just a basic services wherein you will not be able to transfer money from one account to another account without the input of debit card PIN number.
No, the services offered by the banks on WhatsApp are free of cost.
Banks like ICICI bank, HDFC bank, Kotak bank, Indusind bank are providing this service.
Yes, you can do this by going into the menu in the WhatsApp chat. If you find any difficulty in operating the same, you can also call up the call centre or visit the bank branch for deactivation.
Yes, it is safe to use WhatsApp banking as the same can only be activated on the registered mobile number only. Moreover, it doesn’t use any PIN or password of the user, it is more of an informational service which doesn’t have a risk of any fraud.
Conclusion
WhatsApp is the most used mobile applications across the globe. India alone has more than 400 million+ users of WhatsApp. Banks want to capitalise the application and provide the basic services like, balance check, pay bills, opening a FD and much more. By offering these services free of cost to their account holders, banks wants to lower down the cost to serve the customer.
I personally have used ICICI bank’s whatsapp banking services since many months now and I am finding it quite good and easy. I now don’t go to the iMobile app to check the account balance. I just have to type in balance and whoop! the balance is popped up in my chat.