Airtel & With Western Union Offer Mobile Money Transfer – Good Idea Or Bad Idea!!
Bharti Airtel has tied up with the very popular Western union (money transferring service provider) and is offering money transfer through mobile phones. Users from anywhere across the world can send money upto $100 to their hometowns in India.
According to The Hindu business line The move is part of a global initiative by the GSM Association wherein 35 mobile operators spread across 100 countries have taken a commitment to enable the world’s 200 million international migrant workers to easily and securely send remittances to their dependents.
Now what really got me to write this post is the functioning of this money transfer system. Here’s a e.g.
User sitting in Dubai needs to send money back home in Kerela, he punches in the amt and the 16 digit code and sends the money back home. (this is how one would normally imagine it to be right!!)
Now heres how it actually works
Sender - User sitting in Dubai needs to have a mobile application on his cell phone, punch in the amount details. Through the mobile operator the money is transferred to Western Union, after which he gets a 16digit code by email or sms which he needs to share with his family back home.
Receiver – The receiver on getting the 16digit code from the sender has to punch in the details on an “Airtel” mobile phone having a “Mobile Application” which I am sure needs to be linked to the receiver’s bank account. First time receivers would also have to punch in their bank details.
Therefore for the process to take place, one would require –
A Smart Phone which is capable to function the mobile application.
The Dubai (country specific) mobile operator needs to have a tie up with Western Union.
A Gprs connection (for the app to work and send message to western union)
A Airtel connection (for the receiver)
My Question here is that aren’t you making the process more tiresome then it already is?
Indians who work abroad normally don’t have access to these kind of smart phones. I cannot comment on the connection charges abroad but I am sure it will be more than India in most countries. Language will also act as a barrier as there is no set language across india, so the problem of making regional language mobile applications.
In my personal opinion I don’t see such a service taking off unless there is a common syndication across all platforms which make a users life less complicated. And how about finding simple SMS solutions for mobile transfers. security would be a problem but i am sure if they can make a such a detailed procedure, sms security shouldnt be much of a problem.
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