Airtel Money : Charges, Deactivation and What you should know

Bharti Airtel has launched the concept of e-Wallet on large-scale. For those who don’t know,  This facility lets you make payments for Electric Bills, Medicine, Grocery shops, Movie Tickets, etc using your Mobile Phone. The concept is simple, you put money in an account and pay from your mobile phone. Think about it as your debit card attached to your phone.

Why use this when you have the option of net banking?

The problem is not all the banks have an application ready which can be used to pay bills at shops, movies and so on. Airtel brings all of these shopping points in one place. Moreover using an online payment gateway from the mobile browser is very difficult when it comes to user experience.

However, you should know some facts before you start using it. Most of the time we just run after the concept without knowing how much it can cost to us. So below I am listing down the facts which I gathered from the Official Site of Airtel Money.

Features of the Airtel money scheme:

• It uses a Money transfer software application.
• To pay all you need is the Airtel Money number of the shop you need to pay.
• You get a transaction id for each payment.
• The payments are on a secured network and it needs a password called mpin which you enter for every transaction.
• So even if you lose your mobile phone your money is safe as nobody knows your mpin, so make sure you don’t share it with anybody else.

Minimum Criteria to use Airtel Money :

• You need to register with valid documents i.e. Photo, Address Proof with Photo ID.
• The minimum recharge is of RS 100.
• You can have zero balance.
• A maximum balance of Rs 5000.

What if you don’t use your Airtel Money Account for a long time?

There is no expiry for your Airtel Money account but if you don’t use it for 6 months after your last transaction, your account will be deactivated and you will lose all the money left in your account.

Charges for using Airtel Money :

• 64K Sim  will cost you 25 RS
• A monthly subscription fee of 5 RS
• For paying utility bills, 5 Rs is charged for every transaction.
• Recharge, Telecom Bills, Grocery, etc are free.
• Merchants or shops where you make payments might charge you for the convenience fees.