Paytm Tap Card: The Offline Way to Digital Payments

Paytm has launched an offline payment mode called Tap Card, which is being claimed to be the India's first ‘truly offline payments solution’, that will allow customers to pay from their Paytm wallet within seconds. A user can scan the QR code printed on the Tap Card to transfer money at a company-authorized Point of Sale (PoS) terminal without requiring internet connection. The process that uses NFC technology has been introduced in a pilot mode in Chennai in collaboration with Yeldi.com. It is also being said that the foundation on which internet-less digital payment will work, has been laid down by Tap Card. It is primarily targeted towards counting-in the non-internet users to the existing customer base. 

Here is a systematic working of the Offline Digital Payment –

Suppose Rohit want to buy groceries from a merchant who accepts Paytm. And he is using Vodafone network, whose internet service is pathetic in that area. In this scenario, Rohit will execute the below three steps to carry-out the payment.

• Step one – Rohit visits a grocery shop where there is no internet connectivity. He also has a Paytm account and have the required balance in his wallet (MUST).
• Step two – Rohit will scan the QR code printed on the Tap Card and load the Tap Card with the desired amount of Paytm credits. (PS- Maximum amount of money that can be loaded in the Tap Card is less than or equal to the balance in Rohit's Paytm wallet.)
• Step three – The merchant scans Rohit's Tap Card (just a tap) on his NFC enabled PoS and debits the billed amount.

Voila! The payment is made; and that too without using internet at any point of the transaction.

Step 2 may be skipped, if the Tap Card is already loaded with cash. In fact, user doesn't even need to carry his mobile phone. 

Hardware requirements:

• Merchants would need to install a Paytm-issued NFC PoS Terminal
• Paytm Tap Card (Users might have to shell out a nominal cost for the card)

I must say that, Tap Card is a giant leap towards offline digital payment and am sure that it will revolutionize the payment industry.

(In continuation to this, I will write about NFC in the next article)

Author also blogs at : Rohit Narnoli - Man of his Own Image