After days of going on a frenzied hunt for cash at ATMs and banks, chances are you’re ready to switch to e-wallets. There are plenty of them and no 2 are the same in terms of the convenience they offer.
All wallets have common features such as payments to merchants, utility payments and transfer of money to friends but all wallets have something which differentiates them from others.
ICICI Bank’s Pockets can work as a standalone; one does not need to hold an ICICI Bank account. The advantage of Pockets is that it comes with a physical card, which can be used to make payments in real-world.
SBI Buddy’s is a mobile only wallet. Buddy does not have UPI (Unified Payment Interface) facility, but offers an in-app facility to book rail tickets. MobiKwik has been innovating a lot, with the latest being a ‘Lite’ version of the app, which is just 750kB. It loads fast even on mobiles with low memory.
Paytm has its own e-store and in-app bus, movie, flight, train and hotel bookings. Paytm also allows cash loads through ICICI and Axis Banks.
Unfortunately, most of these apps, except the ones by banks need to password or code to log in. They provide for PIN, password or fingerprint authentication only during transfers or payments. This may seems off-putting for those looking for security.
