Woke up to ban on Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes? Here's how to easily sail through cashless day

Carrying Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in your wallet? It's time to stove them aside.

Last evening, PM Modi announced that all Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes will cease to be legal from 9 November. New Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes will be issued on 10 November. Adding to your woes are ATMs and banks that will be shut today. So, its quite possible that some of you are practically stranded with very little or no money. But, in today’s smartphone and digital age, it isn’t difficult to go cashless. Rather here’s how you can smoothly sail through the day without any cash, be it travel, food, groceries, movies, and so on.

The number of mobile wallets have been growing exponentially, and so is the network of merchants and services using them. Today, we have more options than ever before, and its time we take advantage of the cashless world.

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Transportation

To begin with, if you live in Bengaluru, the least you could expect is the auto driver giving back your change, and that is if he agrees to ply on the meter. This is one of the reasons many opt for services like Uber and Ola. These services have made travel easy, not just because the ride reaches your doorsteps, but you can easily pay using Paytm and Ola Money respectively.

For instance, you can sign up for a Paytm and then link it with your Uber account. You can easily add money (monthly transactions exceeding Rs 10,000 will require KYC) to the wallet using your debit/credit cards or netbanking. Likewise, Meru supports Citrus Pay as well as Paytm. Afterall, isn’t it simpler to use your mobile money to render exact change instead of scuffling over a few 10s or 100s when you are already running late? Or shall we say Rs 500s and 1000s, for today?

Overall, it is more about convenience and that’s the reason why Paytm, Citrus Pay and OlaMoney are working wonderfully when it comes to payments for a taxi rides.

Nitin Mishra of Paytm, had told tech2, “The growth can be attributed to two factors – convenience and security. Firstly, paying online using a credit/debit card is a longer procedure involving 16 digit number, CVV, OTP and so on.”

Mobile wallets simplify the process with one-click transfers. If you commute by metro, and the smartcard needs a recharge, you can easily do that online via Freecharge (Android, iOS). PayUMoney (Android, iOS) can also be used when making travel bookings on Yatra, Cleartrip and MakeMytrip. Redbus that is one of the popular bus booking services has its own wallet too. PayU has over 1,800 payment specialists based in local markets supporting PayU’s 200,000+ merchants and the millions of consumers making online payments.

Groceries

Buying groceries or other home essentials can be cumbersome task, whether its walking to a local market or into a crowded super market. With options like BigBasket (Android, iOS), Grofers (Android, iOS), among others. getting all these utilities to your doorsteps, by paying either online or using mobile wallets is now possible. Both support some of the popular digital wallets such as Paytm (Android, iOS), PayU Money, Mobikwik Wallet and Citrus Wallet. These deliveries can be scheduled as per your convenient time, and also offer express delivery option that ensure the good reach your household within 2-3 hours. Other players like Liscious for meat and poultry deliver within a couple of hours and accept online payments, allowing yo to go completely cashless.

This further extends to online food ordering services such as Swiggy, Runnr, and so on. These services also offers payments via mobile wallets such as Paytm and Mobikwik, alongside online transactions. MobikWik that recently launched a lite app, also lets you pay for most of the everyday utilities. Then you have services like BookMyShow that help book everything from movie tickets, threatre shows and even tickets to concerts and marathons.

Bill Payments

And, if you have to recharge your pre-paid mobile device or pay a utility bill, that is also being taken care of by many payment services. The last couple of months, I’ve been paying my DTH and electricity bill via Paytm. And, it has been a hassle-free experience. Moreover, there are other options too such as Vodafone’s m-pesa and Freecharge that will let you quickly recharge a pre-paid phone, pay electricity or DTH bill even when on the go.

Similarly, you can use Oxigen Wallet to make payments online as well as at offline stores such as CCD, Croma, Muthoot Finance, among others. Similarly, you can walk into select restaurants and pay using UltraCash wallet too. We were introduced to UltraCash by a local restaurant wherein the mobile wallet team is taking efforts convincing users to pay using the wallet rather than card or cash. You need to download the app, but instead adding money in the wallet, you directly link your card, and the money is debited directly from the card.

Most of these mobile wallets offer cashback, which means a small percent of the amount is transferred back into your account post payment. You will also find several offers that will let you go to brick and mortar outlets and make payments using mobile wallets. To driver further growth, most of these mobile wallets have several offers running simultaneous so that you make the best of them.

The way we use mobile phones has changed tremendously and probably after a few hiccups, we’re finally getting comfortable making payments via mobile phones. With the comfort level set in, a phone transforming into a means of payment is only natural, and it’ll be a gradual process.