ep_logoBefore I begin, allow me to speak of the success of Telenor Easy Paisa’s Utility Bill payment service. Listing down some quick facts about the bill payment service:

  • More than 47000 bills paid across Pakistan
  • Total amount of bills paid exceeds Rs. 58.8 million

It can be safely said that the Easy Paisa method of bill payment has been received well by consumers and people have started to rely on it. The usage stats are more than the bills paid at ATMs in Pakistan.

Now like it was expected, Telenor has started expanding the set of transactions offered over its ‘Easy Paisa’ service. After the success of utility bill payments, Telenor has launched its ‘money transfer’ transaction that makes it possible for absolutely ANY customer to send and receive money as the receiving and sending of money does not necessarily require a cell phone.

Telenor’s target market appears to be ‘Domestic Remittance’ users in Pakistan i.e. People residing in urban areas for work and sending money from one city to the other or to their native villages. It also aims to work as a replacement of ‘traveller cheques’.

The process is relatively simple, let me list how sending and receiving money works one by one:

Sending Money:

  • Sender visits any one of more than 4000 Telenor Easy Paisa retail outlets, Telenor customer service centers or any branch of Tameer Microfinance bank
  • Sender fills in a form/receipt (as shown in the image below) providing name, CNIC and mobile number of receiver and the amount to be transferred
  • Easy Paisa retailer hands over phone to customer to enter secret 5 digit PIN (this PIN has to be delivered to the recipient)
  • Sender needs to provide a photocopy of CNIC and present his original CNIC for verification

ep_mt_rcpt

Receiving Money:

  • Receiver visits any one of more than 4000 Telenor Easy Paisa retail outlets, Telenor customer service centers or any branch of Tameer Micro-finance bank
  • Receiver presents to retailer/branch/service center the ‘Transaction ID’ as received via SMS or directly by the sender
  • Easy Paisa retailer hands over phone to customer to enter secret 5 digit PIN (this PIN was delivered/told to the recipient by the Sender)
  • Receiver needs to provide a photocopy of CNIC and present his original CNIC for verification
  • Receiver receives the amount transferred by Sender

The service, however, is not free and comes at a cost. The cost is divided into slabs depending on the amount transferred:

ep_mt_priceslab

Fee for the transaction (including taxes) will be charged on top of the Money Transfer amount and it will only be charged to the Sender and not the Receiver.

Example:
A person who wants to transfer Rs. 1000 to another person would end up paying Rs. 1000 + 58 to the Merchant (where Rs. 50 = Money Transfer fee& Rs. 8 = taxes).

Receiver does not need to pay anything and will be able to pick up Rs. 1000 from any easypaisa Merchant.

There is, however, a limit of Rs. 10,000 as the maximum amount that can be transferred imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan. Providing cell phone numbers for both sender and receiver are optional but recommended as they provide automated transaction confirmation in real time.

As an e-Banking enthusiast, I am anxiously waiting for what is next in line in the Easy Paisa service offering! I can make guesses, and very focused ones too, but I’ll leave that for now and may be go out and try a transaction for myself.