Demonetisation: 4 Apps and services to find ATMs, banks with cash near you

It’s been one week of demonetisation and people are still struggling to get hold of cash. From long queues to unavailability of cash, common junta is running pillar to post for cash. To solve this problem, a handful of apps and services have popped up to offer real-time, mostly crowd-sourced solutions to users. Let’s take a look at some of the them. Walnut I’ve heard friends and family talk about running around to ATMs to get cash by making the most of their lunch breaks or after office time. But, sometimes they get to an ATM only to find out the queue is too long to guarantee cash availability by their turn. Sometimes, the ATM that they’ve found convenient all this while would be shut/out of cash. To ensure you save some time and make the right decision, Walnut, which is a finance management company has launched a new feature to allow users find a working #ATMwithCash, and it does so by aggregating ATM withdrawals across India in real time.  Walnut tracks the ATM usage of its over 1.8 million users and the app will prompt its users on every ATM visit to key in details on the status of the queue. The information can also be shared with fellow users on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. So, ATMs with a  short queue are denoted by a green pin, a long queue by an orange pin and a no cash or unknown ATM by a grey pin. The app is available to download on Android and iOS. CashnoCash **CashnoCash** , is a website that went live on 14 November and the traction led to a few crashed by 15 Nov and the site has been reaching API limits. It isn’t limited to ATMs or any particular service provider, but also provides information on banks and post offices across the country. Conceptualised and designed by Manjunath Talwar and Abhijit Khasnis, who are Quikrites and co-founders of Hiree. It’s a crowd-sourced site that is being supported by Quikr and Nasscom. The inclusion of banks and post office status will ensure help to those who prefer transactions with cash and are yet not comfortable or acquainted with cards.  You can go to the website, and either let the site pick your location or simply enter a PIN code to lookup for ATM/banks in that particular area. The list of banks will appear with an icon on the left side against each bank showing whether there is a long wait time, queue or cash availability. On choosing a specific bank, it also lets you update the current status such as if there is cash, long queue or availability, accordingly. You can also create an alert by keying in your email ID or notifications about cashpoints in your vicinity. ATMSearch Another helping hand comes from @Wocharlog who has built ATMSearch to collate information. https://twitter.com/WoCharLog/status/797771262475075584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw You can enter your location or any particular location to search for functional ATMs near you. You will find the nearest ATM and the approximate number of people in the queue. Again, the data is user generated and you can add details depending upon your location. CMS ATM Finder **CMS ATM Finder** also lets users find out if an ATM is out of cash or working. Limited to its own network,  CMS leads in driving the cash cycle in India, from banks’ currency chests to ATMs, to retail stores to wallets. The list shows ATMs that are running, and you have the option to update in case you find the ATM is running out of cash.  These are the options, for now. We will keep updating the list as we come across more apps and services. Some of these are crowd generated data and it should be ensured that the data is fed in responsibly.