[paragsachania]

Cashless Toll payment at NICE - A quick review of "Momoe"

So it was 15 days since I drove to work and mostly worked from home and it was time for me to drive to EC on yesterday. Demonitization ensured I was mostly cashless and opting for electronic payment/e-wallet wherever possible.

Since I take city route for onward via BETL and NICE on return, It meant I still had to pay at the NICE toll booth. Of course, there have also been cases where NICE has let go many cars without a toll whenever the owner has expressed inability to provide anything but a fresh 2000 INR currency.

While at work, few colleagues gave me very positive reviews for "Momoe"

If you read the reviews and ratings for this app, its disastrous to say the least but when you read them in detail, you realise that most have commented negatively for losing on their wallet balance for non usage for more than 2+ months.

At the same time, at least 3 of my colleagues installing this post demonitization, using it and confirming that its easy and convenient at this time when hard cash is a struggle made me take plunge and since I was going to solely use it for paying toll for NICE road, I was more than just sure that I will utilize the balance due to regular use.

• Searched for "Momoe" on Playstore and installed the App
  
• Post installation, went through the usual process of signing up, mobile verification code etc
  
• Once installed, you need to tap on the search Icon and you will get a default suggestions list and the first one will be "NICE Road"
  
  
  
• As you tap on "NICE Road" you go to the next screen where you key in your vehicle number and press "GO"
  
• After this your vehicle number appears in the "Saved Vehicles" list - Note that you can add more vehicles as you wish
  
  
  
• Load the cash into the wallet by accessing the "wallet" section from the top left of the home screen - You can load it through Card Details (Debit and Credit) and as well via Netbanking. I loaded it for 500 to try it out

At the toll booth:

• When its your turn, just tell the Operator "Momoe"
  
• Usually he will have your vehicle number handy through the captured image from the camera but you can always tell him your vehicle number
  
• Tell your destination and you will be given a receipt, similar one that you otherwise would get if you paid cash. However, you can notice in the receipt that the payment mode is mentioned as "Momoe Payment"
  
  
  
• As soon as the receipt is printed, I got a text message from Momoe confirming a debit of 115/- towards NICE Road toll

The app also confirmed the same:



That's it - Its just another normal drive after that.

On Day 1, it has worked without any glitch and I will see if this is consistent and if so, I will simply load more cash and continue to use this.

On the other hand, this is not going to be any time saver like the "FastTag" as you will still be part of the usual queue and only not pay cash at the counter.

[CrackedHead]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

If you read the reviews and ratings for this app, its disastrous to say the least but when you read them in detail, you realise that most have commented negatively for losing on their wallet balance for non usage for more than 2+ months.

Nice review! I was one of the early adopters of this app more than a year back due to frequent use NICE of road and Momoe had a promo offering 20% extra balance when loading Rs 1000. I have not used by wallet balance for several months at a time but have never experienced any loss of balance.

A more likely scenario would be unauthorized usage of the balance if someone else gives your car number while passing through the toll and the booth staff do not check that against the actual licence plate on the car.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Cashless Toll payment at NICE - A quick review of "Momoe"

While at work, few colleagues gave me very positive reviews for "Momoe"

If you read the reviews and ratings for this app, its disastrous to say the least but when you read them in detail, you realise that most have commented negatively for losing on their wallet balance for non usage for more than 2+ months.

Thanks Parag for sharing step by step instructions of using MOMOE for toll payments on NICE Road. I also tried to use this on last Saturday at Magadi Road, somehow things did not work and people behind me started honking and I paid in cash and went ahead.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by CrackedHead

Nice review! I was one of the early adopters of this app more than a year back due to frequent use NICE of road and Momoe had a promo offering 20% extra balance when loading Rs 1000. I have not used by wallet balance for several months at a time but have never experienced any loss of balance.

Thanks CrackedHead. While I was very much aware of this mode of payment since more than a year back, thanks to few posts here on this thread and the advertisement boards at the booth, I was not sure if I would settle for it because back then my usage of NICE was neither consistent nor high.

Over the last 3+ months, I take NICE everyday to return home and this cash crunch (read hard cash) made me sit at home and work for almost 2 weeks only because I saw how bad jams were at the booth in EC in the initial days after 1000s and 500s were scrapped.

A more likely scenario would be unauthorized usage of the balance if someone else gives your car number while passing through the toll and the booth staff do not check that against the actual licence plate on the car.

And that is exactly what I was wondering if that happens. The onus here is entirely on the Toll operator to tally the number with what is displayed on his screen. Not an entirely foolproof system that way.

Originally Posted by deehunk

Thanks Parag for sharing step by step instructions of using MOMOE for toll payments on NICE Road. I also tried to use this on last Saturday at Magadi Road, somehow things did not work and people behind me started honking and I paid in cash and went ahead.

And this is exactly what speedsatya told me too on yesterday that he has used and few times he faced issues.

I suspect that with the recent scenario, just like me and few of my colleagues, usage of Momoe would have surely increased and that the app and the operators have been efficient enough to deal with this.

[sandsun7]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Cashless Toll payment at NICE - A quick review of "Momoe"

I have been using Momoe to pay NICE toll every working day since mid September. It has worked on ALL days on both the toll gates I use - Link road and Kanakapura road. The Link road booth operators always read the vehicle registration number and print the receipt instantly, but at the Kanakapura booth, every other day I have to read out the registration number to the operator. Something to do with the placement of cameras I guess.
It is super convenient as you don't have to carry change. Yes, you can't zip through and still have to stand in Q, but not having to carry change in itself is a big plus point.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by sandsun7

I have been using Momoe to pay NICE toll every working day since mid September. It has worked on ALL days on both the toll gates I use - Link road and Kanakapura road.

That is very encouraging really. I can bank on your experience since it is latest and keep loading cash and using this as long as I continue to work out of EC and take NICE road back home.

In fact yesterday, during a discussion, many colleagues said how they have started using it recently and how it has been working without any glitch. And now that you too mention the same, I can worry less .

The review was only to give a first hand experience than a review itself as I know its been there since more than a year now.

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

That is very encouraging really. I can bank on your experience since it is latest and keep loading cash and using this as long as I continue to work out of EC and take NICE road back home.

In fact yesterday, during a discussion, many colleagues said how they have started using it recently and how it has been working without any glitch. And now that you too mention the same, I can worry less .

The review was only to give a first hand experience than a review itself as I know its been there since more than a year now.

I have been using it for my daily travel to EC from July. Its been hassle free except for 2 occasions where they had some issue at Banerghata Road toll gate. I am hoping they will soon move to an RFID tag based solution like in Highways so that you can just drive thru

You get an instant SMS and notification on the app and the transaction history is available on the app to verify any unauthorized usage.

[binand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Cashless Toll payment at NICE - A quick review of "Momoe"

If you read the reviews and ratings for this app, its disastrous to say the least but when you read them in detail, you realise that most have commented negatively for losing on their wallet balance for non usage for more than 2+ months.

I have to take the NICE Road tomorrow so I installed this app (don't want to pay by cash), but before adding money thought I will re-read your review. Is this true - that they will take away your balance if you don't use it for 2 months? That sounds borderline illegal to me. Maybe it is best to add just exact money to pay the toll; how much is it now from Hosur Road to Mysore Road?

Originally Posted by paragsachania

The onus here is entirely on the Toll operator to tally the number with what is displayed on his screen.

Question: suppose an unscrupulous operator takes half cash from a participating driver, and charges the Momoe account of an innocent person. What recourse does the innocent person have? Complain to Momoe? Do they escalate to NICE, ensure CCTV footage is reviewed, and eventually refund the amount?

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by binand

how much is it now from Hosur Road to Mysore Road?

I think, it is 90/-. You can check the below post,

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...ml#post3180626

[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by binand

how much is it now from Hosur Road to Mysore Road?

As mentioned by Arun below, it is Rs. 90.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by binand

Question: suppose an unscrupulous operator takes half cash from a participating driver, and charges the Momoe account of an innocent person. What recourse does the innocent person have? Complain to Momoe? Do they escalate to NICE, ensure CCTV footage is reviewed, and eventually refund the amount?

I will tell you what happened today on my return that should answer your question.

At the booth I asked the operator if he needs my vehicle number to which he declined and started punching the vehicle details as displayed by the Camera. It only means that the operator is trained to issue Momoe paid receipts only after verifying it with the screen display.

Let us for instance assume the operator issues a receipt to someone who doesn't have Momoe against your vehicle nunber and pockets that cash paid by that someone (who is of course clueless), you will get a text message instantly after which you have every right to get in touch with Momoe first and NICE later. Somehow I am not sure if the system has a Number Plate reader. Even otherwise you can easily contest if you never drove and someone used it against your number as the time and date along with Vehicle Number is part of the text message anyway.

On your other question about unused balance money debited from Momoe due to non usage, I am not at all sure on now genuine is that information by just reading the ratings and comments there.

As you said, it's best to load a small sum, use it on my for NICE. I loaded for 500 and my balance is ready 270 for using it twice for an amount of 115 twice.

[arun_josie]

NICE road toll traffic is pathetic these days, this was at morning 7am, today

[binand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Let us for instance assume the operator issues a receipt to someone who doesn't have Momoe against your vehicle nunber and pockets that cash paid by that someone (who is of course clueless), you will get a text message instantly after which you have every right to get in touch with Momoe first and NICE later [...] Even otherwise you can easily contest if you never drove and someone used it against your number as the time and date along with Vehicle Number is part of the text message anyway.

The thing is, this whole process that you outline requires you (the victim of the fraud) to take action to get your money back: it requires you to liaise with two organisations (Momoe & NICE), requires you to prove that you were not at the toll booth, take time out of whatever you are doing to follow up on this etc. (and the money involved would be quite small for many people to consider it worth following up). That is, you are required to run pillar to post, which is not right. There has to be some preventive control (it is possible that we don't know what that is, yet) that actually prevents this situation from happening; if there aren't any then the concept is headed towards failure.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

On your other question about unused balance money debited from Momoe due to non usage, I am not at all sure on now genuine is that information by just reading the ratings and comments there.

It is mentioned in their T&C.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

As you said, it's best to load a small sum, use it on my for NICE. I loaded for 500 and my balance is ready 270 for using it twice for an amount of 115 twice.

I took NICE Road last week one day on my way to Calicut; I just loaded it with Rs. 90 (the toll amount between Hosur Road and Mysore Road), so now my balance is 0. I think for my kind of usage (occasional with frequency approx. once a month) that kind of procedure makes sense since cashback etc. don't matter and it doesn't allow one to short-circuit the toll line anyway.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by binand

The thing is, this whole process that you outline requires you (the victim of the fraud) to take action to get your money back: it requires you to liaise with two organisations (Momoe & NICE), requires you to prove that you were not at the toll booth, take time out of whatever you are doing to follow up on this etc. (and the money involved would be quite small for many people to consider it worth following up). That is, you are required to run pillar to post, which is not right. There has to be some preventive control (it is possible that we don't know what that is, yet) that actually prevents this situation from happening; if there aren't any then the concept is headed towards failure.

And for that, I loaded just 500 and after using it thrice last week, the balance is 155.

I will continue to load 500 every week and use it as per my plans to drive to work everyday or otherwise and that should suffice.

Now - regarding anyone including me becoming a "Victim of fraud", as I end up talking about MOMOE to colleagues, I had one who is using this for almost a year now and not even a single case of fraudulent transaction. Makes me feel better than break my head over lost money through fraud!

In similar news, MobiKwick is also coming up with something on the same lines - Pay toll through e-wallet on 300+ Toll Plazas maintained by NHAI:

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/mo...wallet-1630458

Digital payment company MobiKwik on Friday said its customers will be able to pay toll tax at 391 toll plazas using the mobile wallet.

After receiving the approval from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Mobikwik's wallet service will soon be live at 391 toll plazas in India, it said in a statement.

The company has received an approval from NHAI to enable commuters across all toll plazas in the country pay cashless through its mobile wallet to avoid traffic congestion due to cash crunch, it added.

"Commuters across the country can soon pay cashless at all toll plazas using their MobiKwik wallet. We have taken this step in the wake of demonetisation to avoid congestion at highways, owing to the ill effects of cash crunch," MobiKwik co-founder Bipin Preet Singh said.

Post scrapping of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes on November 8, NHAI has announced no charge at all toll plazas till December 2, 2016.

[binand]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

I will continue to load 500 every week and use it as per my plans to drive to work everyday or otherwise and that should suffice.

That's fine; you obviously use the NICE Road a lot more than me; for you the risk-reward equation is titled to the other side. But please don't assume that since it is not being misused now, it will not be misused ever.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

In similar news, MobiKwick is also coming up with something on the same lines - Pay toll through e-wallet on 300+ Toll Plazas maintained by NHAI

From that article: "At the toll plazas, users will have to open the MobiKwik app on their phone and scan the QR code on the toll plaza." - Mobikwik have thought about this problem and have solved it in a preventive manner (missing from Momoe).