What are the benefits of PhonePe App Mobile Wallet?

PhonePe - What are the benefitsWhat are the benefits of PhonePe App Mobile Wallet?


The year 2016 will be remembered as a revolutionary year for the Indian economy. On November 8th, the Prime Minister of India declared a war against black money and terrorism. Suddenly, Rs.500/- and Rs.1000/- notes that were in circulation ceased to be legal tender. It became a shock for the nation as we are still not ready for a cashless economy. To ease the situation, the government is now encouraging people to use cashless means of payments as much as possible. One of the Apps which got evolved as part of cashless transaction is PhonePe App. But what is this PhonePe App all about? What are the benefits of this App?

Also Read: How does Paytm Mobile Wallet Work?

Indian Economy moving towards Cashless Transactions


A small village that goes by the name Akodara has already been acting a testing hub of cashless economy since 2015. ICICI bank in association with Indian government has made the village completely cashless and every trade happens via mobile banking. It is the only village in the whole country which didn’t face any issue after demonetization.

The market is stuffed with cashless options.


There are several apps which you can use to go cashless. It has to be kept in mind, though, that the charges on debit cards, credit cards and e-Wallets are not applicable at the moment but will return after some time.

In the beginning of 2016, Indian government launched UPI (Unified Payment Interface) that allows the users to send money from their bank accounts instantly 24×7 to any bank around the nation. All you need is the UPI id of the receiver and UPI app in your phone. 31 banks have already joined the UPI interface and the remaining banks will join soon. UPI is completely free and most probably will remain free in coming time as well.

Security is an issue with e-Wallets


Any e-Wallet that is functional at the moment cannot compete with UPI in terms of security and interconnectivity of banks.

Take an example of PayTM.

In case the CBS of the issuing bank is down, you cannot transfer money to your bank account. Also, if the IMPS system of your bank is down, again you won’t be able to transfer the money to your bank. In case of UPI, as the money gets transferred directly from bank to bank or account to account, the app acts as just an intermediately.

What is PhonePe?


Let’s talk about one of such app now. If you haven’t tried it, you should download PhonePe app from your Android phone. Their iOS version is scheduled to release soon as well. The app is owned by Flipkart and the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) system is powered by Yes Bank.

There are a lot of benefits of using a UPI based app which is, in this case, PhonePe.

mPIN makes it more secure


If you have used other e-Wallet apps, you might have felt the requirement of a dedicated security check-in which is missing from almost all the e-Wallets in the market. Recently Paytm added a security feature but it is linked to the security of your phone which is not as safe as an mPIN. To elaborate little further, mPIN is just like the ATM PIN without which money cannot be taken out from ATM or any transaction can be made at any PoS point.

You can pay by using the recipients’ mobile number, UPI ID or by scanning the QR code at the shop. The money will get debited from your account and credited to the recipients account almost instantly. You do need to load the PhonePe to make the transaction like the e-Wallets.

Transaction limit is much higher than e-Wallets


Let’s talk about the transaction limit. Interestingly there is a transaction limit of Rs.20000/- per month in every e-wallet for non-KYC customers. However, in case of PhonePe it is 30 lakh. You can do transactions from Re.1 to Rs.1 lakh in a single day!

Also, from January 2017, the e-Wallets will again start charging the customers and merchants for withdrawing money to the bank account. The charges will most probably be borne by the paying customer in case he is paying via e-Wallet to the merchant. Now, in PhonePe the transaction charges will remain Zero for the lifetime.

Hassle free fund transfer


The main issue with the e-Wallets is that when you want to transfer funds to a bank account, you have to ask for the complete details including Name, Bank, IFSC code, and Bank Account. In case of PhonePe, as the transaction is done via UPI, you only need any one of phone number or UPI ID. Also, for receiving the payments from anyone, you do not have to disclose your bank details.

Secure and safe


Now, it is obvious to have little fear of online fraud or losing the phone. There are several security features in the phone which are missing from the e-Wallets.

First, you cannot make payments without the dedicated mPIN. Secondly, in case someone tries to use your account on another device, it is not possible as the app will run only on the registered device. Each PhonePe account is registered basis the mobile number and the device.

What else from PhonePe?


Apart from paying the merchant with UPI or receiving payments, you can also do a lot of different tasks via the app. You can recharge any mobile number, pay for the postpaid mobile connection, pay landline, electricity or water bills in different states and pay for the associated insurance companies.

Conclusion: PhonePe is a RBI authorized company and has registered as partial payment system with RBI. The best part about the app is that you do not have to load the wallet again and again to make any transaction. It is much easier to keep track record of the incoming and outgoing money via bank statements. The transaction charges are zero for both sender and receiver so the additional cost will not apply. The security features on the app are much better than any e-Wallet available in the market at this time. PhonePe’s association with Yes Bank makes it even more secure. However, we are yet to hear about any limitations / negative points about this App as we are in initial stage.

Readers, have you used PhonePe App? What are your experiences?

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Suresh

What are the benefits of PhonePe App

Suresh KP

14 comments

  1. In my experience, I had booked a train tatkal ticket using irctc through phonepay. At a time I selected as UPI mode. So finally I’m unable to book the ticket. because the payment confirmation is taking more than 1day. so I lost my ticket and time also. So the issue is payment status will take more than hours.

  2. May be phonepe is secured by all means and free of charges etc but one feature of saving debit card number details is not acceptable. It should be an option for me whether I want to save my card details or not like many other compititors wallets

  3. suppose think that my friend does not have a android phone and he dont know any thing about phone pe  

    and 

    he dont want to share his a/c details  … by knowing his mobile number can i make a transaction ….to his account 

  4. I tried recharging BSNL pre paid connection. It failed both the times. But the money deducted from bank account was credited back in 10 minutes. Even thought recharge failed(dont know the reasons), they are honest and credible to refund the amout immediately. 

  5. Queries :

    (a) what if one loses his mobile or buys a new phone ?

    (b) to protect online frauds, the entire world's banking system needs to introduce a "cooling-off" period mechanism (of 2-3 days) within which monies transacted are not permitted to be withdrawn by the recipient in Cash. So, if someone points a gun and misuses the phone to transfer funds online or hacks and commits an unauthorised money transfer, the victim has the opportunity to reverse the transaction.

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