Spoilt for choice: Here are 5 tips on mobile banking

Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all it’s flavour - English poet William Cowper

Spoilt for choice: This is how you would feel when you think of making a mobile banking transaction. There are five options you can choose from.

If you are not sure which mobile banking option you should choose, the following are a few simple ways to help you decide which option suits you better.

Mobile banking transactions can be classified into two: push type and pull type. Push type is a one-way transaction where your bank sends you information pertaining to your account. For instance, the SMS you receive whenever you use your debit card. All you need to do is provide your bank with your mobile number and you get these SMSs from the bank.

Pull type of transaction is a two-way transaction, where you send a request and the bank replies.

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IMPS-based

Inter-bank mobile payment service (IMPS) is an inter-bank fund transfer service through National Payment Council of India (NPCI). Most banks offer this service.

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What all you can do: This service lets you transfer funds from one account to another across banks within the country using your mobile phone. You can also make payments using IMPS to merchants who are registered with IMPS. Here you can pay utility bills, buy travel tickets, make over-the-counter payments provided the merchants is registered with IMPS.

How it works: You can use the IMPS via your banks’ app, UUDS dial-in number, SMS banking or net banking. To begin with, you have to register with the bank to get a Mobile Money Identify Number (MMID). Once both the beneficiary and the remitter link their bank account number to their respective mobile numbers, they get an MMID and a four-digit mobile PIN. To initiate the transaction, the receiver’s MMID number is a must. Once you specify the amount, the transfer takes place and both you and the receiver get an SMS intimation about the transaction. The transfer of funds will take in a few seconds.

Other finer details: You can use a basic handset to perform funds transfer by using the SMS and USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) mode. If you have a smart phone you can use the IMPS via the bank’s apps or net banking. Keep in mind, to use the IMPS service you will have to bear a cost. For instance, as per ICIC Bank Ltd’s website, transaction charge for amount up to Rs1 lakh is Rs 5. And the maximum transaction limit is Rs 50,000 per day.

Bank app

For this type of mobile banking, you have to use the bank’s software.

How it works: You need to download an application or software on your mobile phone. This works on both GSM and CDMA handsets for Android and iphone platforms. You need to send an SMS to the bank and then download the application via a GPRS connection. Alternately, you could also download it from your smart phones apps store. Keep in mind that you will need an active internet connection on your phone to use this service. Once you download the app, icons for various tasks will appear on the phone.

What you can do: A lot, from seeking information on your account to paying utility bills. The app allows you to give instructions such as stop payment of a cheque and request for passbook. You can open fixed deposits (FDs) and recurring deposits. You can book movie, bus and air tickets. If you have existing loans or demat account, you can get information on those as well. You can use apps to transfer funds from one account to another account, ever across banks that too in real time basis. To carry out any transaction, a four-digit PIN provided by the bank is a must. To make financial transactions, an additional authentication number will be provided by the bank. Without these two numbers, no financial transaction can be made. Most important of all, this type of mobile banking is possible only through a smart phone.

USSD-Based

First and foremost, smart phone is not mandatory to use this facility. All you have to do is dial the bank’s service code and you can ask for information on your bank account.

How it works: This pretty much works like checking your recharge balance on your mobile phone. Banks provide a dial-in PIN, a character-numeric combination (service code, for example something like **99#). This type of mobile banking comes with built-in encryption and hence is more secured than a non-encrypted SMS-based GSM mobile transaction. This is a no-storage-just-forward facility and allows you to choose from a menu of tasks.

What you can do: You can use basic mobile handsets for this service and don’t need an active internet connection on your mobile. You can request for information on savings, demat and credit card accounts; recharge your pre-paid mobile connection; and transfer funds via IMPS.

SMS-Based

This is the most popular type of mobile banking. It’s the basic type of pull mobile banking transaction where you need to SMS a keyword to the banks’ mobile banking number. The bank will have a keyword assigned to each task.

What you get: Mostly information regarding your account. For instance, you can make a balance enquiry, cheque status enquiry, last three transactions and the like. You can also stop payment of a cheque place an order for a cheque book through SMSs. The best part is that you just need a basic phone to use this service and no internet connection is required.

Internet-based mobile banking

This way of banking is where you use your mobile screen like a computer monitor.

How it works: You open the net banking page on your phone using a mobile browser. The browser is compatible with almost all handsets available in the market today. You simply need to use your mobile banking user name and password. Of course, you will need a GPRS connection on your cell phone.

What you get: This offers you access to your savings as well as credit card account with your bank. Apart for information on your accounts, you even get to do funds transfer; pay bills, and make various services request. Lets just say, you can do all, you can do with net banking with your mobile instead of the computer. For security point of view the communication you make via this is encrypted and secured with Secure Socket Layers (SSL) which is a protocol for encrypting information over the internet.

Keep in mind, that there is not much you can do as far as mobile banking security is concerned. Ensure that you don’t save the PIN and other log in user name and password on the mobile itself. In case you lose your mobile, inform your bank as soon as possible. Now that you know the five ways to mobile bank, choose the one that suits your need and security requirement.