I am sure many of you have have made payments on your mobile earlier – but in all cases it requires a GPRS or Internet enabled phones.
I just came across a new service launched by Galileo and Paymate in India – Msmart – that allows users to make payments on mobile (without GPRS) for services like flight/ rail/ bus tickets, hotel rooms bookings, holiday packages or anything else for that matter.
Here is how it works:
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The seller registers on Galileo’s mSmart system as an agent.
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Seller will be provided with login access to a secure interface on Paymate’s website
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To charge a customer, Seller enters his/ her 10-digit mobile number and amount to be charged on the PayMate interface on PC screen
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The customers mobile will instantly receive an automatic IVR call from PayMate to confirm the amount and enter his/ her credit card details on the phone’s keypad (Secure DTMF input like TPIN in Phone-banking). Meanwhile the status on your screen will change to “Payment Pending”
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Once the customer has entered the details, the transaction will be processed within a few seconds and the customer will hear a confirmation message on the IVR call as well as get an SMS confirmation.
Now this is a great secure way of making payments on mobile without much hassle. Yes, the seller has to be registered with Msmart system for consumer to make payments.
But I find this very interesting – The utility of this kind of system is quite vast. Anyone can make a payment on mobile from anywhere without worrying about GPRS / Internet / PC etc.
Now you can argue, that one can just call up the seller and directly give the details – In that case there is a risk sooner or later your credit card details are going to fall in wrong hands, and there is no proper proof of payment etc.
What this system does is, makes your payments secure, some thing that is of paramount importance.
The system is currently targeted at Travel Agents, but I dont think the system has limitations for it to be used for any other verticals.
What do readers think of Msmart? will it popular?
p.s: is there any other similar service offered in India?
this is kinda silly… definitely seems liked a plug in by Paymate… u talk about the convenience of a mobile phone… but to make the booking i need to log on to a website anyways? If i am anyways online doing booking, the agents could as well as be a Suvidhaa or ITZ dealer with whom they maintain a deposit.
or maybe i am missing something here?
While the call back facility looks interesting, we would eventually punch in the Credit Card details onto a IVRS something similar to what we do while booking tickets via phone and then paying over a IVRS.
Cant really figure out how much of a value add is this
Yup I looked at the flow and service – certainly a real point point solver!
I only hope it rolls out to all us travel agents – why only Galileo
GK
Definitely a positive new alternative – like you said, the security is one of the key advantages.