Wednesday, January 27, 2016

What is the minimum age for legally using mobile wallets?

Mobile phones with wallets entice customers with a strong value proposition. People may have more control over their spending if they use a wallet than if they use cash. Opposite too may be true for some users. Payment banks that will get launched in april / may this year, may want youngsters to use their wallets. Parents usually give their kids a mobile upon reaching a certain age. They may in future also want to give them pocket money via loading the cash onto their son's/daughter's wallet.

The question is how old should a person be in order to legally use wallets on his own(In India). I mentioned in one post that the yet to be launched Unified Payment Interface(UPI) would be so simple that kids would want to use it to pay for their daily dose of kinder joy. This question obviously goes to the very basic issue of a child turning major. My answer would be it depends on the temperament of the child and whether he/she will disclose the password to someone. A very apt topic of research for sociologists. May be someone could write something on "Banking for the toddlers"...(quip)

Since wallet spending is traceable, would it not be more safer for kids to carry cash in a mobile wallet than in cash? If so would it make sense to reduce the age by which a kid can use a wallet legally? The answer is a big Yes, I hope.

So a kid may want to purchase something in his school canteen or stationery and may want to use a wallet for that. He may even pay his fees or exam fees that way provided a secure/special way is found. Now are the wallet companies willing to sell their product to the youngsters is the question. And is the government willing to reduce the legal age by which a person can use a wallet offered by a payment bank? I am sure such questions are being asked only now that we have come across a special situation. The answer needs to be searched pretty soon.
Currently the only check that is done in on boarding a customer by the wallet companies is an email address verification. If aadhaar based authentication is performed then an issue may arise where age of user is known and may be too low to service the request. We all have read news reports of two year olds using apple phones to purchase goods without their parents knowledge.
P.S: I hope i am not wrong on this and that just like a minimum age for banking even wallet use does indeed have a minimum age requirement. I do understand the cash in wallet is meant to be spent and that the entire risk is borne by the user who loads cash into it.

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