Nokia Money launched in India

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Nokia has announced that it has launched Nokia Money across India. Nokia Money basically gives Nokia users secure wallet for their money which can be used to pay bills without necessarily having a bank account.

Users can pay bills, top-up their mobile balance, and even book train tickets. Nokia argues that there are there are only 10% of India’s more than 600,000 villages have access to bank. Besides there are more Nokia dealers in India than bank branches.

“There is a need for alternate financial payment instruments in India and mobile offers the perfect mass platform to deliver these. Transaction costs through banking correspondents is almost a tenth cheaper and for customers using mobile for money transactions the cost are even lower,” said Gary Singh, general manager, Nokia Mobile Payment Services.

To avail this service, customers just need to reach to their nearest authorized Nokia dealers and set up the service on their phones. On Smartphones it’s available as an application but Nokia’s feature phones can take advantage of the service via SMS.

Our take on the service:

Having used Nokia Money for few months, it does provide convenince of not having to deal with bank. But the irony is that, you can register for a  Nokia Money account through a bank and only few banks — Union Bank and Yes Bank, support it. I would have loved to pay my bills via Nokia Money but many services are yet not supported. All I could do with my Nokia money balance was recharge prepaid balance on my mobile handset.

I also found it difficult to recharge my Nokia Money balance but then Nokia Money is targeted at rural India than urban India. Although, I wouldn’t call where I live urban India and when I asked Nokia dealers about recharging my Nokia Money balance they hadn’t even heard about it. I hope Nokia has educated them in last three months.