My views on downsides of Mobikwik

Mobikwik asked me how likely I am to recommend this app to my friend. On a scale of 0 to 10, I gave them 0 rating. Here are the reasons:

(1) The concept of supercash is illusive. It appears attractive at first glance, but the effective utilization of supercash is very difficult, because in any single transaction only 5 to 10% of total supercash can be used. Mobikwik should consider revising this cap from 5% to around 25%.

(2) Wallet to Bank transfer fee is extremely high compared to PayTM. A fund transfer of Rs.5000 from Mobikwik to a bank account attracted a huge fee of Rs.250, whereas the same trasaction attracted a fee of Rs.149.86 when PayTM was used. No doubt both wallets are expensive when it comes to transferring funds. But, PayTM is lesser evil. Unless and until such huge fees are waived, the best option at the moment is to tranfer funds through UPI system using a third party app like PhonePe or Axis Pay. UPI transfer attracts nil charges.

(3) If you have a PAYBACK card, you can redeem the points at Mobikwik and have these points converted to Loyalty Money balance in Mobikwik wallet. This balance can be used fully for any recharge or other transaction on Mobikwik, but cannot be transferred to bank account. While this is very convenient for PAYBACK cardholders, the down side is that ICICI credit card charges Rs.29.50 every month as a reward redemption handling fee every time I redeem PAYBACK points at Mobikwik.

Overall, I would rate PhonePe and PayTM higher than Mobikwik.