eCommerce major, Amazon India, has launched a card-less EMI option using Amazon Pay through which customers will be able to purchase high value items without using credit card.

This offer has been launched keeping in mind the festive season and to take on Walmart owned Flipkart and attract more customers.

“Amazon Pay EMI is the hassle-free way to get instant credit, via a completely digital process, for purchases using EMI on Amazon.in.”

The new cardless credit facility offers an EMI from INR 8000 to up to INR 60,000 over a period ranging from 3 to 12 months for any purchase made through Amazon.in.

Amazon customers need to complete a one-time setup process in order to avail the Amazon Pay EMI payment option checkout on Amazon.in to make payments over EMIs ranging from 3 upto 12 months.

Customers will also be able to keep a track of their purchases, repayments from a dashboard of this payment mode. Here are all the things you need to know about this new payment option from Amazon.

Steps to avail CardLess EMI Option

Amazon Pay EMI is available only for mobile platforms. The payment mode is applicable for single item purchases and the minimum purchase amount is INR 8,000 to avail Amazon Cardless EMI facility.

The e-commerce giant claims that users can get credit within 60 seconds and there are no processing fees or hidden charges of any kind. However, the feature is applicable only on single item purchases without an exchange offer.

Here customers need not to enter any credit/debit card details such as credit/debit card numbers etc.

1. Go to Amazon Pay EMI registration page on your Amazon.in mobile App
2. Tap on Amazon Pay EMI > Register
3. Provide your PAN and Aadhaar/Virtual ID (VID) details for verification
4. Complete the process of verification by entering the OTP received on your registered mobile number
5. Now Amazon sends an approved Amazon Pay EMI limit on your screen
6. Choose the auto-repayment option by selecting the debit cards from banks mentioned by Amazon
7. Link your bank account/debit card to process your monthly EMI repayments whenever you use this limit for booking
8. You will be charged for an amount of up to INR 5 to verify your details. This amount will be refunded to you in 3-5 business days

To be eligible for this facility, a customer needs an Amazon ID, a valid Aadhar or PAN card and a bank account. Banks currently supporting this facility include Canara Bank, Citi Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank.

Recently, Amazon pay acquired app aggregator Tapzo and invested in ToneTag for contactless payment.

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Digital payment is a buzzword now-a-days and appearing everywhere in India either small or medium-big market and most of the players have already filled the gap. Many more are coming in the battleground to fight in the zigzag row. In the same row, American Express has announced the launch of Amex Pay in India. Amex pay is a mobile payment service in the country which allows the American Express card users make payments based on QR codes and contact-less payments via the Amex mobile app.

The Amex Pay feature is available on Android devices with NFC and running Android 4.4 KitKat minimum or higher and iOS devices running iOS 11.2.6 can be used for the Amex Pay.

For now, the contact-less payments are not supported on iOS. Additionally, the device should be capable of reading QR codes using the camera app, in order to carry out QR code-based transactions.

How to do QR Code based Payments using Amex Pay?

1. Log in to your American Express account on either the Android or iOS app of the Amex Mobile app
2. Choose Register with Amex Pay
3. Grant the required permissions and enter the OTP you received in order to complete the verification process
4. For QR-based payments, you need to click on Pay with Bharat QR, scan the code, and enter the amount
5. Confirm the same and enter the card’s PIN to complete the process

How to do NFC based Payments using Amex Pay for Android devices only?

1. Follow first three above steps on Smartphone which supports NFC, make NFC on from the settings
2. Make sure Amex Pay contactless digital payment is the default tap and pay service
3. Hold your smartphone close to the payment terminal to do the contactless digital payment/transaction

Samsung Pay was introduced in India with support for the American Express credit cards and charge cards those are eligible for the payment.

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Reliance’s Jio Infocomm has now forayed into the banking business with a payments bank service and named it as Jio Payment Bank (Jio Payments Bank Limited), a joint venture between Reliance Industries and State Bank of India with a 70:30 per cent partnership between the two.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is one of the 11 applicants for setting up payments bank in August 2015. Jio received the licence to start operation in March 2017, according to media reports.

The 11 unit as Payment Banks who got license, under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India, from RBI are-

• Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited
• Airtel M Commerce Services Limited
• Cholamandalam Distribution Services Limited
• Department of Posts
• Fino PayTech – Fino PayTech Limited
• National Securities Depository Limited
• Reliance Industries Limited (Jio Payment Bank)
• Shri Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi
• One97 Communications – PayTM Payment Bank
• Tech Mahindra Limited
• Vodafone m-Pesa Limited

What is a payments bank?

A payments bank is like any traditional bank but operating at a smaller scale. The only difference is that payments banks do not have any credit-providing service.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel was the first one to start payments bank services in India in November 2016. After a huge success during demonetization, PayTM also launched its payments bank services in May 2017.

FINO Payments Banks Limited started in June 2017. The Aditya Birla group’s Idea Payments Bank was started from February 22 this year. And now, Reliance JIO.

How are they different from traditional banks?

The Airtel payments banks offers the highest interest rate of 7.25% unlike the other traditional systems. PayTM payments bank offers an interest rate of 4 per cent on a savings account and 7 per cent on fixed deposits. Payments banks can accept deposits of up to Rs. 100,000 per account from individuals and small businesses.

Apart from the interest rates, payments banks offer zero balance accounts or no minimum balance accounts without any extra charge.

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UPI (Unified Payments Interface) enabled WhatsApp (acquired by Facebook) Payments feature is already live for beta users in India, however it is not rolled out for every WhatsApp user till now.

If this feature is rolled out for every WhatsApp users in India in coming days, then let’s know how to add banks/bank account to your WhatsApp, and how to send/receive money to your peers/friends and vice versa?

As reported, this feature is available on WhatsApp version 2.18.21 for iOS, and version 2.18.41 for Android.

The payment option uses the UPI interface, which is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India through its payment subsidiary NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) – a regulatory body responsible for all retail payments in India.

Since WhatsApp is the peer-to-peer payment option, you can’t use this for merchant payments. Using this payment option i.e. UPI enabled WhatsApp, money will be directly debited from and credited to your account. Once your contact number is linked with the bank account and UPI, there is no need to enter the VPA (Virtual Payments Address) or bank account number or IFSC code. The same applies to your friends or peers in the WhatsApp group.

Requirement to do WhatsApp Payments

1. Latest version of WhatsApp app on your phone
2. Both sender and receiver should be running the latest WhatsApp version as well as have WhatsApp Payments option enabled
3. WhatsApp number should be same as your mobile number linked to your bank account with UPI option support as well

Linking Bank Account to WhatsApp Payments

1. Open WhatsApp
2. Tap on three dots on the top right corner
3. Tap on settings
4. Tap on “Payments” just below notification
5. On the next screen, tap on “ACCEPT AND CONTINUE”.
6. Verify your mobile number using SMS, tap on “VERIFY VIA SMS”.
7. App will send you an SMS and use the same and complete the verification process.

Now you will see a list of all UPI supported banks, bank name and the last four digits of your bank account.

1. Select your bank.
2. App will fetch details and show your bank account number. After this, you will see the message saying setup complete.

Change or delete bank account in WhatsApp Payments?

If you have multiple bank accounts and want to add, change or link another bank account then-

1. Open WhatsApp
2. Tap on the three dots on top right and tap on Payments
3. Tap on “add new account’ and you will see the list of banks
4. Once you select your bank account, it will fetch details and add the account
5. You can either set up this account as your primary account to send and receive payments or you can remove also
6. By tapping on bank, you will see the option of setting the bank as primary or secondary bank to receive or send payment

WhatsApp Payments – How to send money?

The best feature of WhatsApp Payments is that you can send money to your friends using individual chats, or you can send money to your friends in a group too as follows-

1. Open individual chat (to whom you want to send money)
2. Tap on the “Clip” icon and there you will find the option “Payment”, tap on it
3. If the receiver has latest WhatsApp version and bank account configured, you can enter the amount followed by a note (a message) and tap on the send button
4. It will ask you to enter 4 digits UPI pin
5. Once you enter and authenticate then the money will be sent
6. You will also get the details of the transaction from your bank as an SMS.

WhatsApp Payments – How to receive money?

As of now, this feature is not available, but it will be rolled out to all users in some time.

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As per the reports by Google (Alphabet Inc.) and Boston Consulting Group, India is headed for an exponential increase in digital payments methods and the digital payments industry in India becoming Asia’s third-largest economy. It is estimated that it will grow by 10 times to touch $500 billion by 2020 and contribute 15% of gross domestic product (GDP), the report predicted.

Introduction of smartphones, the entry of several non-banking institutions offering payment services, consumer readiness to adopt digital payments, progressive changes in the regulatory framework will power the trend, it said.

Also, the Digital India program is a flagship program of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless” is one of professed role of Digital India.

As part of promoting cashless transactions and converting India into less-cash society, various modes of digital payments are available as below-

1. Banking Cards (Debit / Credit / Cash / Travel / Others)

Banking cards offer consumers more security, convenience, and control than any other payment method. The wide variety of cards available – including credit, debit and prepaid – offers enormous flexibility, as well. These cards provide 2 factor authentication for secure payments e.g secure PIN and OTP. RuPay, Visa, MasterCard are some of the example of card payment systems. Payment cards give people the power to purchase items in stores, on the Internet, through mail-order catalogues and over the telephone. They save both customers and merchants’ time and money, and thus enable them for ease of transaction.

2. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)

The innovative payment service *99# works on Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) channel. This service allows mobile banking transactions using basic feature mobile phone, there is no need to have mobile internet data facility for using USSD based mobile banking. It is envisioned to provide financial deepening and inclusion of under banked society in the mainstream banking services.

*99# service has been launched to take the banking services to every common man across the country. Banking customers can avail this service by dialing *99#, a “Common number across all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)” on their mobile phone and transact through an interactive menu displayed on the mobile screen. Key services offered under *99# service include, inter-bank account to account fund transfer, balance inquiry, mini statement besides host of other services. *99# service is currently offered by 51 leading banks & all GSM service providers and can be accessed in 12 different languages including Hindi & English as on 30.11.2016 (Source: NPCI). *99# service is a unique inter-operable direct to consumer service that brings together the diverse ecosystem partners such as Banks & TSPs (Telecom Service Providers).

3. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS)

AEPS is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial transaction at PoS (Point of Sale / Micro ATM) through the Business Correspondent (BC)/Bank Mitra of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication.

4. Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience. Each Bank provides its own UPI App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s) such as Axis Pay, SBI Pay, PhonePe App, Google Tez App, BHIM UPI App, Bonus App – PNB UPI.

5. Mobile Wallets Or E-Wallets

A mobile wallet or E-Wallet is a way to carry cash in digital format. You can link your credit card or debit card information in mobile device to mobile wallet application or you can transfer money online to mobile wallet. Instead of using your physical plastic card to make purchases, you can pay with your smartphone, tablet, or smart watch. An individual’s account is required to be linked to the digital wallet to load money in it. Most banks have their e-wallets and some private companies and various startups have also launched E-Wallets in India. e.g. PayTM, Freecharge, Mobikwik, Oxigen, mRuppee, Airtel Money, Jio Money, SBI Buddy, itz Cash, Citrus Pay, Vodafone M-Pesa, Axis Bank Lime, ICICI Pockets, SpeedPay etc . are digital payment methods.

6. Banks Pre-Paid Cards

Prepaid debit cards, sometimes referred to as bank prepaid cards, are credit instruments that banks issue that give people an easy and adaptable way to manage their finances. Prepaid cards are independent of bank accounts, in contrast to conventional debit or credit cards that are connected to checking or credit accounts. Rather, they preload money onto the card, which they then use for a variety of payments up to the available balance.

7. Point Of Sale

A point of sale (PoS) is the place where sales are made. On a macro level, a PoS may be a mall, a market or a city. On a micro level, retailers consider a PoS to be the area where a customer completes a transaction, such as a checkout counter. It is also known as a point of purchase.

8. Internet Banking

Internet banking, also known as online banking, e-banking or virtual banking, is an electronic payment system/digital payment methods that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institution’s website.

9. Mobile Banking

Mobile banking is a service provided by a bank or other financial institution that allows its customers to conduct different types of financial transactions remotely using a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet. It uses software, usually called an app, provided by the banks or financial institution for the purpose. Each Bank provides its own mobile banking App for Android, Windows and iOS mobile platform(s) which is one of the most popular digital payment methods now a days. 

10. Micro ATMs

Micro ATM meant to be a device that is used by a million Business Correspondents (BC) to deliver basic banking services. The platform will enable Business Correspondents (who could be a local kirana shop owner and will act as ‘micro ATM’) to conduct instant transactions.

The micro platform will enable function through low cost devices (micro ATMs) that will be connected to banks across the country. This would enable a person to instantly deposit or withdraw funds regardless of the bank associated with a particular BC. This device will be based on a mobile phone connection and would be made available at every BC. Customers would just have to get their identity authenticated and withdraw or put money into their bank accounts. This money will come from the cash drawer of the BC. Essentially, BCs will act as bank for the customers and all they need to do is verify the authenticity of customer using customers’ UID. The basic transaction types, to be supported by micro ATM, are Deposit, Withdrawal, Fund transfer and Balance inquiry.

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