Amazon India’s wallet service is finally open to the public, but with limited features for the time being. The e-commerce giant is trying to pick up their pace with other shopping portals by this launch. They got the final approval to launch digital wallet service from RBI a few months back. Let’s see the services and features of the Amazon Pay Balance Wallet.
Amazon’s Pay service was introduced in India last year in December and has undergone lots of upgrades since then. The Amazon Pay balance is a digital wallet solution by Amazon which can be used at Amazon.in and their partner websites and apps. It consists of two components, Amazon Pay balance= Money + Gifts & Credits. Money is the new feature in Amazon Pay balance, with many plus points. Signing up for Money requires a one-time verification of Mobile Number and Name, which you can change later. In future Amazon may also provide KYC verification by submitting physical documents and e-KYC process set out by UIDAI. The notable differences are in the table below.
Money Vs Gifts & Credits
| Money | Gifts & Credits |
| Needs one time verification in order to enable top ups and usage. | Doesn’t require verification. |
| You can load a maximum of Rs.20,000 in a month. | There is no limit on the amount one can load. |
| You can add Money in amounts of Rs 1 to Rs 20,000. | You can top-up the Gifts & Credits in amounts of Rs 10 to Rs 20,000 and also add Gift Cards. |
| Will support Bank account transfers soon. | Does not support bank account transfers. |
| Add money using domestic credit or debit cards, net banking and Cash Loads. | Top up Gifts & Credits using domestic credit or debit cards and net banking only. |
| Money balance will be used only for any payment only when the Gifts & Credits balance is exhausted. | The funds available as Gifts & Credits will first be used on any payments. |
| You will be forfeiting this if no credit/debit transaction happens for a continuous period of 12 months. | This will expire in 12 months from the date of top-up. |
There are no charges for topping up the Gift & Credits or adding money. Once loaded, the time taken for funds to appear in the wallet can extend up to 15 minutes. However, adding a Gift Card to your Gift & Credits is instantaneous. Add money[link] now to avail exclusive launch benefits up to Rs 500 cashback.
Uses of Amazon Pay Balance
It can be used in combination with other prepaid instruments (credit/debit and net banking) to place orders on Amazon.in and their partner websites & apps. You will get exclusive cashbacks for transactions done with Amazon Pay on these partner websites [Amazon.in/Amazon Pay Partners]. List of active partner websites – Justickets, Abhibus, Faasos, Behrouzbiryani, Mydala, Amar Chitra Katha, BYJU’s learning solution, Cafe Coffee Day, ORRA, CANDERE, KOTHARI.
Amazon will credit refunds for orders paid online to respective sources viz Pay Balance, Credit/Debit or Netbanking. But for cash on delivery orders, you can select refunds to Pay Balance and perhaps later transfer to a bank in a jiffy. As a promotion, they are now offering cash back for COD refunds to Pay Balance.
To sum up, Amazon is pushing hard their Pay Balance service by investing over Rs 130 crore for cash back offers and extra refunds. But their arch rival Flipkart is still having an edge in digital payments with UPI enable PhonePe app. These intels are from Amazon.in website, the usage of Amazon Pay Balance is subject to the terms and conditions[Money + Gifts & Credits] mentioned on their website. Forgive for any discrepancy or mistakes, Peace!