[Omkar]

Paytm had the maximum market share among all the e-wallets. It was by far the most popular and quite ubiquitous on other apps - Uber, Zomato, Swiggy etc. all gave you the "Paytm Wallet" option on their payments page. This made using Paytm Wallet that much more convenient as you could just add an amount in advance and track the expenditure regularly from one single platform. Also helps avoid cluttering up your bank / card statement with small transactions.

So, the question is, which is the next best (semi-closed) wallet that allows the same kind of convenience as Paytm?

The different types of wallets.

1. Closed wallets: This is where you can add money into an app’s wallet but use it within that ecosystem only. They do not allow customers to withdraw money or transfer money to other bank accounts. Apps with closed wallets include Ola Money, Swiggy Money, Zomato Wallet, etc. These are becoming more and more popular with apps as it’s a gift card-like system and the money is safe within the ecosystem.

2. Semi-Closed wallets: These allow people to use the prepaid wallet money on other apps as well. The wallet providers create a network of merchants for transactions on their platforms. Examples of semi-closed wallets are Paytm and Mobikwik wallets. You must’ve seen the Paytm option in the payment gateway of apps like Uber and Zomato.

3. Open wallets: These can be issued by banks or in partnership with banks. They can be used for transactions like semi-closed wallets and can be used to withdraw cash from ATMs and to transfer funds. Examples of open wallets are Pesa by Vodafone and ICICI bank, Pay Zapp by HDFC, etc.




Source - Medium

[Omkar]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[DigitalOne]

UPI Lite? Works for all offline micro transactions irrespective of the receiver's UPI Id. And no need to enter the UPI pin.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Man, Paytm was truly great at providing a perfectly seamless and reliable wallet and with a simple and straightforward user interface. It will be missed. Of the current lot, Amazon Pay wallet is good in my experience from a reliability point of view. But the UI is pretty complex and it requires a lot of extra taps on the touchscreen.

[searacer932]

ICICI Pockets seems to be an open wallet. I just installed it today. Will give it a try for few days and post my feedback here.

[cheeku]

Amazon Pay wallet would be my choice.

I have been using it every other day for the last few months and even the reward rate is great.

Most of the apps have it as an option to link from their payments page at present including Uber which majorly used Paytm earlier as its prepaid wallet.

It has its own clutter-free UI section in the app when you tap the amazon pay button and provides a no-nonsense view being a good example of what an e-wallet UI should look like (Paytm in the old days).

[sachinayak]

I tried 3 Options and will probably switch to the 4 one in the list below.

1. MobiKwik - this works, but the app needs phone/SMS access to make a payment. Red flag for me. Have requested for account closure after 1 day, once done will uninstall the app.

2. HDFC PayZapp - has a wallet functionality, but whenever I scan a UPI QR code, it only asks for a bank account link instead of the wallet. Think this will not work either.

3. RuPay Credit Card - gone one created instantly yesterday and have linked it in my GPay app. Works as expected but needs a PIN all the time and one of the vendors had not approved RuPay as a mode of UPI payment. Makes me doubt the acceptance.

4. UPI lite - does not work for me (as Citibank is not one of the Banks that supports this feature) but from what I read, this will eventually be my go-to solution.

[planet_rocker]

I was using PayTM Wallet till they stopped it. I have been using Amazon wallet since.

But the ease of adding money to the wallet was better in PayTM.

[condor]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

UPI Lite? Works for all offline micro transactions irrespective of the receiver's UPI Id. And no need to enter the UPI pin.

Is that a wallet ? I think UPI Lite is a lean form of UPI where a PIN is not required, but the amount is deducted from your account. Wallets are where the amount is deducted from the wallet itself.

*

Since I had PhonePe already in use, I activated the wallet on this and using it.

[mpthy]

Originally Posted by condor

Is that a wallet ? I think UPI Lite is a lean form of UPI where a PIN is not required, but the amount is deducted from your account. Wallets are where the amount is deducted from the wallet itself.

The experience of using UPI Lite is very similar to using a wallet:
1. You load money in UPI Lite
2. Pay for UPI transactions without a pin
3. You re-load once the balance becomes low

The money stays on the device, and not in your bank account. I haven't actually tested scenarios like transferring money back to your account, changing devices, etc.

[ex-innova-guy]

Originally Posted by condor

Is that a wallet ? I think UPI Lite is a lean form of UPI where a PIN is not required, but the amount is deducted from your account.

UPI Lite is like a wallet (currently using it in Google Pay), but the maximum wallet limit is just ₹2000. The biggest gripe of UPI Lite is that you can’t do a transaction amounting to more than ₹500.

Originally Posted by mpthy

I haven't actually tested scenarios like transferring money back to your account, changing devices, etc.

Transferring money back to your account is a seamless process and is refunded to your account within minutes.

[svsantosh]

Being an NRI, I was uneasy once PAYTM shut shop to do things like Indian mobile recharges (to receive OTP while abroad), utility bills payment (Tamilnadu Electricity), Desi bank to Desi bank, Desi bank to Desi credit card payments, INR salaries to maid/caretakers back home, pay to private life/term insurance, month SIP savings schemes, car insurance etc etc.

Phonepe too over Paytm role seamlessly and I do not miss PAYTM at all.

[Jeash.vk]

UPI Lite. I was in the same conundrum after PayTM wallet was closed as I used it for all my small purchases - milk man, nariyal pani, juice etc - primarily due to the ease of use and wide adoption.

With UPI lite I have the same functionality, but whats even better is that UPI Lite is vendor-agnostic. I.e. I can use this wallet to pay to any QRcode - Paytm, Phonepe, Bharatpe - anything. Couldn't be happier!

[saket77]

So, isn't there any method to connect PayTM Lite with auto sweep mode with Fastags?
Also, can UPI lite be used to recharge fastags?

[binand]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Paytm... with a simple and straightforward user interface.

Paytm's UI was simple and straightforward? Launch the app (and login) - and you get a screen with dozens of buttons, ads, top navigation bar, bottom navigation bar, hamburger menu, paging menus (horizontal scrollers)... everything was there. It was among the most cluttered UI I have ever seen.

And the UX was bad too. The only reason I stuck with it was that I had 2x Fastags with them (I have made only Fastag transactions in the last 5+ years).