Paytm’s Secret Experiment: Lock Money Added Via Credit Card, And Stay Silent!

Paytm has been in the news since last few days, albeit not for good reasons.

After their founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s strong statements against Whatsapp and Facebook, it is their wallet which is attracting the wrong kind of news.

Recently, it was revealed that Paytm has started a ‘secret experiment’, without informing the users about it.

As a result, several of the users’ money was locked and converted it into gift vouchers.

Is this even allowed as per the RBI norms?

Money Added Via Credit Card Got Locked!

As per reports, some users who added money into Paytm wallet via credit card, saw their money getting locked.

That money was not added to the mobile wallet, as it is the case earlier, and instead, that money was secretly and silently converted into gift vouchers. Now, the most interesting thing about gift vouchers is that they can be only used for purchases made inside Paytm app or Paytm Mall app.

Besides, this money cannot be transferred to any other person or any bank account as well.

Hence, in a way, Paytm is forcing credit card users to use the money added only within their ecosystem.

When Outlook India contacted Paytm, they admitted this exercise, terming it as a trial.

Sonia Dhawan, the deputy general manager of Marketing said,

“It was a trial which has been discontinued now. This was to check how many users were using their credit card to add balance to their Paytm account,”

What Was The Purpose Of This Experiment?

If we closely observe the ‘participants’ of this undeclared experiment, then we will find that this was yet another attempt by Paytm to stop money laundering.

Several ‘financially savvy’ users of Paytm add money into their wallet via Credit Card, and then transfer the same to their saving bank account and withdraw them via ATM.

This way, they save a lot on processing fee, which is usually charged by credit card companies.

In order to stop this, Paytm had dared to impose a 2% additional fee for money added to wallet via credit card. Due to a huge uproar, and angry reactions from the users, Paytm discontinued this next day.

Last month, in their further efforts to stop misuse of cashbacks, they launched Paytm Cash, and all cashbacks from hereon will get auto-converted into Paytm Cash.

Now, this is same as gift vouchers, can be neither sent to any bank account or transferred among friends. You can only use the Paytm Cash for in-wallet purchases or Paytm Mall purchases.

Their decision to run an experiment to check out credit card usage was, maybe, another attempt to stop this misuse, and maybe induce a new method to increase in-wallet shopping and more Paytm Mall purchases.

We will keep you updated.