I have been using Paytm for couple of years now. Mostly to recharge my prepaid mobile balance and have since then embraced all new features that it added – be it bus booking service, or adding cash to wallet.
When it introduced its marketplace, I was thrilled and kept checking for ‘good’ deals on the site, only to be disappointed each and every time. Over the period of time, I have realized that Paytm doesn’t really want to promote its marketplace but wants to promote its prepaid wallet service through its marketplace. Notice how all free coupons on every recharge made from the site has free paytm credits.
Recenty, I wanted to buy MI 10k mAh power back and had checked out every online store. The power backup was only available on Paytm marketplace. I was eager to buy, however it was priced higher than it was listed on any other site. Paytm was even offering huge discount in the form of cash back. Calculating the cash back, the power back up would have costed me same as its listed price on other sites, however, I would have had to pay extra and and the cash back would be added as Paytm Credits, thereby locking my money with them.
Honestly I have always hated prepaid wallets. With our increasing dependence on online services, just imagine the number of prepaid wallets one would have to keep, just to have a seamless transaction. And if I were to credit money into every wallet, I will lose count of the services and thus my money. That said, when I credit money into these wallets, there’s no saying how frequently I will use these wallets. I absolutely hate the fact that these services will eat interest on money which I would otherwise get from bank. EDIT: Annkur and Amit have pointed out that RBI regulations don’t allow companies to earn interest on prepaid wallet cash. Prepaid wallets make sense when you use these services very often – something like Mumbai local smart cards. Here the government is smarter than I thought, it actually gives me 5% interest every time I credit money into my smart card. Really really smart move. Where as prepaid wallets from most online services do not provide me enough incentive to keep using them.
Prepaid wallets is good way to lock in users, however, for a user it’s not really a smart move.
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