Uber sees India as its fastest growing market outside of the USA. However, ever since they launched in India a year ago, Uber had a big hiccup in their growth, which was the non-acceptance of debit cards. For those of you who are not in the know, Indians love debit cards and not credit cards as much, and they want to use money from their bank accounts to the extent possible.
With RBI’s notification to Uber to stop using their payment gateway in India without 2-factor authentication, Uber had to solve this problem quickly because they’d have to shut down operations by end of October 2014 (later extended to November 2014).
Anyhow, they’ve now added a new digital wallet from PayTM to be able to pay for rides in India. While this means you will have to now store value for rides in India via Paytm, this also means you can use your credit card, debit card and netbanking to pay for rides.
How does this work? Well, for starts, it only works on Android and iOS enabled instruments at the moment. You need to have a PayTM app on your phone installed and a Paytm account validated before you can make use of this service. This is similar to Uber’s association with PayPal in various countries.
As per Uber’s blog, this is how you set up a new account or edit an old one to add Paytm as an option to pay.
- The Paytm wallet option is currently available on Android and iOS. New to Uber? Don’t miss out! Download Uber.
- Existing users can follow the simple steps below to transition to the new payment option
- When you register with Uber, you’ll be prompted to add a payment profile. If you already have a Paytm wallet, you may link it to your Uber account.
- Click on ‘Payment’ to find your wallet. Then click on ‘Add Money’. The minimum recharge value is only Rs. 100
- Recharge your wallet whenever you want by using your credit card, debit card or your NetBanking account.
Now, I have not been able to personally add my Paytm wallet to the account, but I think this is huge for Uber to be able to expand in India, because well, everyone has a debit card and as long as they have a smart phone, they can hitch a ride.
If you would like to sign up with Uber using my link, you get INR 300 as credit for your rides, and I get INR 300 as referral credit when you take your first ride.
Do share your Uber Paytm experiences.
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Forgive me for being dumb here, but will the current system of directly debiting my credit card be made obsolete and Paytm will be the only default payment system going forward?
A little inconvenient, if so.
@Deo I am waiting to see what happens here myself. I love the old system too.
I am having a fab experience with Uber in Blr. They are running some price promotion currently and it is costing me much less than an auto ride. Infact it is coming out atleast 30 percent less than even Ola. Ola on the other hand is nowhere to be seen, their cabs have somehow disappeared and I am almost regretting loading my Ola wallet for their 2x scheme last month. I am using my Paytm wallet for other stuff like bookmyshow and dominos which give 10-15 percent cashback. Anyhows I recall Paytm being a 10x accelerated partner witi citibank. Can you confirm ?