Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Digital wallets in modern India

                          In Modern Era, Digital Wallets play a major role in purchase many online services like Bill Payment, Grocery, Fashion trends, Tax payment, etc.,. We have been rated a few top wallets based on their services, offers, etc. To create your own wallet on any of the following the KYC guidelines are the same. As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules updated recently on 28th Feb 2018 for KYC, digital wallets have been updated their limits and features.

            Here we discuss Cash Load limit, Sending Limit to wallet and Withdrawal limit to Bank account for the handy reference to the customer. Yes, most of the wallets are covered for the above detail.               

KYC Guideline
As per orders issued by the Reserve Bank of India, February 28, 2018, is the last day for mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance by prepaid wallet customers. Hence, you cannot load money in any PPI (Prepaid Payment Instruments) without KYC from 1st March 2018. But you can still use your available balance with your wallet for bank transfer, purchase, etc.,
Some wallet services follow Minimum KYC and Full KYC. If you upgrade your wallet for full KYC you can use your wallet to the maximum limit with less charge. Most of the digital wallets accept e-KYC which you can update my means of updating Aadhaar ID with OTP. Other Govt ID proof like Voted ID, Driving License and passport also accepted for Minimum KYC. The withdrawal of wallet balance to any bank account, you can only transfer Rs.5000 in a single transaction.

1)   Paytm
           Paytm is one of the most popular digital wallets used by many merchants and customers in India. It has lots of features like Recharge and Bill pay for various services like mobile, electricity, broadband, DTH, Landline, Cable TV, Metro, Data card. It has shopping features in paytm app as well as under Paytm mall app.  Under shopping, we can even book automobiles like Bikes and cars. 
Premium features like paying Tuition Fee, Loan repayment Gold, Gas bill, Insurance, FAS tag, Petrol, Challan, Municipal tax payments, Toll, Donations for devotional and credit card payment is recently launched. Other Features like Flight booking, Train booking, Bus booking, Movie booking, and monthly grocery booking features are updated recently.
          Amusement parks entry tickets can be booked for major cities like Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, and few more cities. Still, we can expect more from Paytm as they are rocking already with their service and in a confined packed mobile app.
        The beneficiary is to be added before transferring to the amount to other wallets as well as bank account. In a single attempt, you can withdraw up to Rs.25000 in your added bank account. This facility is only available with Paytm wallet.

2)   Mobikwik
Mobikwik wallet made easy for online recharge and bill payments like mobile, DTH, Electricity, Data Card, etc., It also has the premier features like paying landline metro, Gas,  Insurance, Broadband, water, Digital Cable TV, Municipal Payments, Traffic Challan, Jio Phone Booking, etc., It specialty features are bus ticket booking and hotel booking. It also has special features like SuperCash.
       SuperCash can be earned through various promotions running across Mobikwik platform and it can be used against purchases and recharges through Mobikwik.  You can use 10% of SuperCash Balance as a discount against purchases made online and stores and 5% of SuperCash Balance against recharges made through Mobikwik. This SuperCash is valid for 3 months. You can use SuperCash in 3 transactions a day and 20 transactions or maximum ₹1000 SuperCash whichever is earlier in a calendar month.
Example: If you have 1000 rupees in SuperCash balance then you can use 10%, i.e., 100 rupees ad discount for purchases and 50 rupees as the discount for recharges and bill payments.
 Users cannot use SuperCash more than once in a day on a single sub-category from Recharge and Bill Payments. For example, if you have utilized SuperCash today on post-paid mobile bill payment, you will not be able to use it again on another post-paid mobile bill payment today.
I have personally checked with SuperCash balance and it works only against recharges and bill payments and not in purchased made online. Even If I have balance in SuperCash it shows as zero while doing the transaction. You can see the screenshot for the same as shown below.
   Hence check your SuperCash balance for usage against other online purchase before accumulating it more.

3)   Unimoni wallet

UAE Exchange Ltd has introduced this user-friendly mobile app, XPay Wallet. Later this wallet name changed to unimoni. This wallet can be used for Loading and sending and withdrawal of money as well as regular services like recharge and bill pay facilities. This wallet charges flat Rs.5/ as withdrawal charge and it charges while loading the cash as 1.95%. This wallet is charging very minimal comparing to other wallets. Their in-app user experience is comparatively low. But still, it can be used for a very less charge.

4)   ABPB
Idea money wallet is now ABPB (Aditya Birla Payments Bank) wallet.  ABPB wallet cash loading will be free up to maximum 5 cash deposits per month. You can load only 5000 in a single transaction through credit/debit card. It will take 48 hours to enable you to transfer to bank account from the date of loading. Maximum cash deposit per transaction limited to Rs 25000. You can do the transaction with *400# using your idea number.




5)   Airtelmoney
                             Airtelmoney is the father of mobile wallet. Yes, Airtel launched its recharge facility through mcheck. Later it came up with service called Airtelmoney which facilitated free cash load as well as free withdrawal to the bank while launching its service. You can access this service using *400# USSD also. Hence it doesn’t require the internet also. But after some days they started charging for withdrawal of cash to the bank. Nowadays their service mainly concentrates on Airtel Payments Bank which simply left the customer out of focus from Airtel money service.
        As of now, they take 24 hours to withdraw the cash to the bank which you loaded from a credit card, debit card or net banking.  Airtelmoney has express wallet features which give a monthly limit of 1 Lakh with an up-gradation Fee of Rs.50/-.

6)   Phonepe
Phonepe is a wallet service launched by Flipkart and it runs of lots promotion on recharge services, Flipkart purchases and also with transactions with other merchants both offline and online. This app is really user-friendly, but still, you cannot load this wallet using credit cards. Those who are getting points for transacting through debit cards can use this phonepe wallet to earn points. There is no charge on withdrawal to the bank. Please refer the below table for limits.
Wallet top-up using the credit card is not allowed. Per transaction limits on spending from the wallet is Rs.10000. An overall limit of Rs.10000 is allowed for (non-KYC) Basic wallet customers.

7)   Payzapp

      Payzapp which was launched by HDFC and it runs various promotions for paying through its wallet. The charge to withdraw from wallet to bank is  2% +18% GST.

               The only Rs.20000 can be transferred to a particular bank account per day. You can still initiate another transaction to a different bank account. Currently, this is the best wallet giving you a hassle free usage with low bank transfer charges. You can load up to Rs.25000 from a single card with a maximum limit of Rs.50000 per day.

8)   Ola money
   
                     You need to use ola money app to use this facility. Only Full KYC customer can transfer to the bank with a maximum limit of Rs.10000 per month. It will take 72 hours to enable you to transfer to bank account from the time of loading



9)   Oxigen
                      An overall limit of Rs.10000 is allowed for (non-KYC) Basic wallet customers. You can load only Rs.4000 in a single transaction through any mode. It is very difficult if you wish to load large amount as the wallet can be loaded with a maximum amount of Rs.4000 per transaction.

10)   Udio

            e-KYC Customers can hold up to Rs.1,00,000 at any point of time for 1 year from the date of OTP e-KYC and can transact for up to for Rs.2,00,000 in a year. The customer can transfer funds only after a cooling period of 30 mins from the date of registering the beneficiary.  Loading charge will be limited to a maximum amount of Rs.99/- only.  Wallet account maintenance fee will be Rs.100 per quarter from the second quarter onwards. You can only load a maximum of two times using a single card. You can transfer a maximum of Rs 5000 per day and Rs 50,000 per beneficiary per month.

11)              Jiomoney
           
                       Jiomoney service was launched by Jio telecom network. Currently, they offer only minimum KYC account. You can load an amount of 10000 in a month and can use up to 1 lac per financial year. You can not initiate bank transfer from wallet right now.


12)              Mpesa
                     Mpesa is a wallet launched by Vodafone and owned by ICICI Bank currently. It will take 15 days to enable you to transfer to bank account from the date of loading. You can do the transaction with *400# using your Vodafone number.  Charges are as listed in the below table. The 20000 limit is also applicable to a Full-KYC customer. Certain net banking and debit card customers are limited with a loading amount of Rs.10000 to 15000. 

Please check the page link referred here.

13)              Amazonpay          

                    This wallet can be used on third party sites also. Amazon pay offers different promotions with third party sites. Please do have regular check with those sites to utilise it. Currently, you will get 2% of shopping value as amazon pay rewards when you set an auto load option on amazon pay with a minimum load amount of Rs.1000. You whole purchase amount should be from   amazon pay balance.

14)              Freecharge

         Transfer to other wallets as well as bank withdrawal requires full KYC status. But the full KYC feature is not yet launched.


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

What can you do with Alexa as a developer?


 Alexa:

Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon, used in Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Look, Amazon Tap and Echo spot. These devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service which responds to the name "Alexa". This "wake word" can be changed by the user to "Amazon", "Echo" or "Computer".

 
Echo Products

It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, playing audiobooks, streaming podcasts, and providing real-time information like weather, traffic, news, etc.,. Alexa can also control several smart devices. Users can extend the Alexa knowledge by adding apps called "skills". We can control these skills by using Alexa app on any devices.

It was introduced in the United States of America on November 2014 with limited version, later June 2015 released full version. It was released in the UK on September 2016; later in October 2016 it extended its services to Germany & Australia. In 2017 it was introduced in the India, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and other 38 countries.



 Alexa Skill Developers:

Amazon also introduces developer portal for talented genius, who can add their own apps and skills. Alexa team will review your skills and certify for public access. Based on the highest customer engagement, developers are rewarded by cash every month and they will be notified when their skill eligible for the same. They have several categories like Education, Food, Games, Trivia & Knowledge, Health & fitness, Kids, Lifestyle, Music& Audio, and Productivity. Developers can make a skill based on the location specific like US, UK, etc., As of now Alexa allows only English(US), English(UK), English(Australia), English(Canada), English(India) and Japan & German languages.
Amazon Developer Services is a suite of tools and services that enable a developer to build, test and sell applications and games in the Amazon App Store. Amazon Developer Services includes software development kits for building apps for Android or iOS mobile devices, multiple platform engines, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Alexa-enabled devices, PC and Mac.



 AWS Promotional credits:
Amazon encourages developer with one year free access for the development environment within their free tier limit. If their free tier limits exceeds they can apply for AWS promotional credits.  If you have published one or more Alexa skills you are eligible to receive a $100 AWS promotional credit and can also receive $100 per month in AWS promotional credits if you incur AWS usage charges for your skill.
Alexa developers can build and host most Alexa skills for free using Amazon Web Services (AWS). Many Alexa skill developers currently take advantage of the AWS Free Tier, which offers one million AWS Lambda requests and up to 750 hours of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) compute time per month at no charge. However, if developers exceed the AWS Free Tier usage limits, they may incur AWS usage charges each month.