Paytm Complains Misuse Of Their Wallet With Credit Card Transfers; Imposes 2% Fee On Credit Card Recharges

India’s largest mobile wallet and soon to be launched Payments Bank, Paytm, has for the first time ever, punished all their users for the mistakes of few. Taking a tough stand on the issue of misusing the privileges of their wallet, Paytm has decided to impose an additional fee of 2% for adding money to their wallet using the credit card.

In their blog post, Paytm has categorically stated that this additional fee is applicable only on credit card recharges, as they said: “We will put 2% fee (inclusive of taxes) only on adding money to wallet using credit cards while adding money using any other payment option remains free..”

We are terming this as a punishment because Paytm has found that some people were misusing their wallet, and as a result, every user will have to pay the penalty.

Paytm’s Punishment For Rotating Money Using Their Wallet

Paytm discovered that some people are adding money in their wallet using a credit card, and then transferring the money to their bank accounts, thereby exploiting 0% transaction fee facility.

Now, Paytm needs to pay to credit card companies and banks for every transaction, and this money rotation from credit card to bank account was costing a fortune for Paytm.

They said, “. This disturbing trend of using credit cards to rotate cash affects our ability to serve our valuable customers”, adding, “If user simply adds money and takes to bank, we lose money.”

Justifying their decision to charge 2% additional fee for credit cards, Paytm has said that they business model is based on transactions made by the wallet cash to buying products/services on their own platform. If users are simply using their wallet for getting cash via credit cards, it is a blatant misuse of their platform.

Besides, Paytm has also revealed that this misuse of their 0% transaction fees was being carried over by several employees of ‘national financial institutions’ as well, something which has been described as ‘surprising’ by Paytm. They said, “This may surprise normal users like most of us but for a savvy user it meant freebies at Paytm’s cost.”

Paytm has made it clear that this 2% fee is only for credit card recharges, as they said, “We recommit ourselves towards 0% charge for credit card, debit card, net banking, UPI & IMPS when you purchase any product on Paytm or pay for any utilities.”

How Will Paytm Compensate This 2% Fee?

Paytm will provide an equivalent value of discounts and offers to compensate this additional 2% fees. As per the details shared, as soon as the credit card is used for recharging money, and 2% additional fees is charged, Paytm will send a 2% discount coupon within 24 hours of the transaction.

This would be applicable for only those transactions which are more than Rs 250 value, and the discount coupons can be only used within Paytm’s platform for shopping.

They have also shared a series of FAQs related to the discount offer and additional 2% fees.

Is Paytm right in imposing additional 2% fees for credit card recharges? Should every user of Paytm bear the punishment for mistakes done by few? Do let us know by commenting right here!