Mobile wallet concept for beginners

Mobile phones have penetrated the market quite rapidly. Both, people from urban as well as rural areas are starting to incorporate it in their lives for every little daily task. Be it buying groceries, paying local businesses, recharging smartphones, or just sending money to loved ones in their times of need, the rise of mobile wallets and UPI apps is clearly visible. Although, there still lies a lot of confusion to understand the difference between UPI and online wallet. You need to understand the mobile wallet concept properly to know more.

Given that the Government of India also strongly supports the steady integration of mobile wallets and UPI into our daily lives, we should understand the difference between UPI and mobile wallet. Alongside, there are multiple apps, all of which allow cross platform transactions to take place instantaneously.

However, the terms UPI and mobile wallet are often used interchangeably. As a result, this may lead to confusion if you aren’t fully aware of what these terms mean.

To get your mobile wallet & UPI concepts clear, continue reading this blog.

What is a mobile wallet?

A mobile wallet is merely a digital version of the physical wallet that you have been using since forever. However, since it is a digital platform, you can simply use your smartphone to do payments that you wish to make. You do not have to use your physical wallet.

Thus, even if you do not carry your physical wallet with you at all times, your mobile wallet will be there to help you. These digital wallets can go where physical wallets could never. You can make quick payments remotely, track your monthly expenses, and so much more.

With a mobile wallet, you do not even have to enter your bank account details, credit/debit card number, CVV, card expiry date and perform other formalities that can often end up being a drawn out, cumbersome process.

What is UPI?

UPI, which stands for Unified Payments Interface, is a Government of India backed digital platform. It makes transactions from one bank account to another bank account possible.

NPCI, the National Payments Corporation of India, facilitates the UPI features and benefits. This is the organisation that oversees all the UPI-based applications. It also ensures complete end-to-end security for all the apps that work upon UPI. It itself is a special branch of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and operates under the Ministry of Finance.

At its very core, UPI is the underlying technology that enables the businessmen, their customers, and others to connect their respective bank accounts to send money.

The difference between UPI and wallet – UPI vs Mobile Wallet

A mobile wallet is a simple smartphone based mobile app with which you can send money. But you have to upload the funds from your bank account to the wallet before you proceed. Once loaded, payments can be made in one click.

On the other hand, UPI uses funds directly from your bank account for completing transactions. You need to enter a pin code to validate the transaction.

Keep in mind, you can use both your UPI and wallet to do an online payment (depending on the payment site) Using a mobile wallet is just much easier as it doesn’t ask you to mention the PIN, etc., too.

Airtel Thanks App mobile wallet and UPI feature

With Airtel Thanks App’s mobile wallet facility, you can recharge, pay bills, shop online, and lots more with just a few steps. All you have to do is install the Airtel Thanks App or visit their website. Through the app, you can open an Airtel money wallet by filling in the details required. Then, you can add money in the wallet and use it for future references.

While we explained you the process of how to go about adding money to your Airtel wallet, the Airtel Payments Bank also allows customers to indulge in direct cashless transactions with the UPI system. Here, the user needs to scan a merchant QR code to pay directly using their Savings Bank Account, that is linked to the BHIM enabled UPI app.

Speaking of the Airtel Thanks App, well it is quite easy to operate. It will help you make payments in a swift and hassle-free manner. You can use the Thanks App to pay all your monthly bills. Moreover, the app will also send notifications to remind you of the bill payment dates that are nearing.

Airtel has designed the Thanks App while keeping you and our needs in mind. Therefore, it gives you a digital wallet experience that is hard to replicate. Now that the discussion about UPI vs Wallet has come to an ending with a better understanding of the terms, let’s understand why Airtel Thanks app is the one we are looking for.

The Airtel Thanks app has brought together the mobile wallet concept to life.

The Thanks app has an extremely adaptive and user friendly design. It also has all the exciting offers one gets under the My Rewards section the application. Now that you know what’s the difference between UPI and mobile wallet, you can make a convenient choice for yourself.