How do I pay money to another who doesn’t have a bank account (IMT)?

Time to read: 3 mins | April 15, 2017

It’s been a while since you used cash for your daily needs. From your commute, to and fro from work, to your movie tickets, to eating out and doing your groceries, everything is taken care of, by your cashless banking eco-system of credit cards, debit cards, Mobile app and Internet Banking. You keep forgetting to withdraw cash, because you pretty much manage all your expenses by being cashless. There are days on end where you get by with a Rs 1000 withdrawal. Short of cash and don’t have a fresh cheque book is your perpetual state. It actually is a bother when you have to step out of your virtual banking universe. This mostly happens when you need to pay off your plumber or electrician for their services. Finding change is tedious and this irks you. Since you got your landlord to download Axis Mobile, and have been sending him the monthly rent via IMPS, all you withdraw cash is for your household help. But what with demonetization and long queues at ATMs, giving her the rent on time for this month seems a bit of challenge. You considered transferring money but to make matters tad bit more difficult, she doesn’t have a bank account. You insist on opening one for her and doing all the bank work, but what about this month. What do you do? Is your virtual banking eco-system hearing you?

This situation that you have wrapped yourself in, is not uncommon, especially now. But it is completely manageable with IMT, which is Instant Money Transfer. All you require is your household help’s mobile number with which you need to make a one-time registration. Post which you can send her the amount, the details of its validity date (which is the time till which she can withdraw the amount) and the sender’s code which needs to be kept confidential for her to withdraw the amount. Once she receives all these details, she can walk across to any Axis Bank ATM and withdraw the cash, without having an account or a debit card. And there you go, your virtual banking universe saves the day once again!

However, this goes without saying that you must encourage your household help to open a bank account. It helps at a time when there is a cash crunch.