Airtel Money - Convenience or Hype?

Airtel Money is can definitely be termed as hype but conversely it is also a convenient way to avail a lot of different fiscal services. The transaction process can also be termed as mobile banking.

Using the Airtel Money service, which is now live in India, one can deposit money (called loading cash) and pay for various products & services, send money to others, book movie tickets, recharge mobile phones and digital TV, pay mobile / utility bills, pay for shopping and so on.

This mobile wallet service of Bharti Airtel is now available across 300 main cities in India. The service allows its users to load cash on their mobile devices and spend it to pay utilities bills and shop at more than 7000 merchant outlets.

Description	Express account	Power account
Account open charges	Nil	Rs. 50
Minimum Account Balance	Nil
Single Transaction Limit	5000 (unless using special SIM)
Daily Limit	Rs. 10,000	Rs. 50,000
Maximum Account Balance	Rs. 10,000	Rs. 50,000

Transaction charges
Transaction	Express account	Power account
Airtel payments (bills, recharges etc.)	Free
Non-airtel utility payments	Rs. 10
Travel ticket booking (online)	1% of transaction amount, subject to a maximum of Rs. 50
Movie ticket booking	Not available	Free (introductory offer)
Shops, restaurants etc	Not available	Free
Send money to Airtel money customer	Not available	Rs. 5 for transactions up to Rs. 500, Rs. 10 for transactions above
Send money to bank account	Not available	2% of transaction amount, subject to minimum of Rs. 10

Mobile banking is the use of mobile phones to access bank accounts, primarily for account inquiry, mobile transfer, retail payments, micro insurance, savings remittances, mobile top-up, utility bill payments and government collections.

Hence, the convenience of the service cannot be ignored. Think of the big queues in banks to transfer money through core banking. Is it not a great way? Yes, definitely (what I feel). Again, the different services that you can avail just at your fingertip anywhere anytime is quiet admiring and time saving.

It is true that Airtel is not providing the service free of cost. But still the convenience part is present and so Airtel money service is a convenience rather than hype.