Short Story
28-year-old Som is a Senior Consultant in the HR Tech domain. He lives in Gurugram with his mother. He completed his schooling and graduation in New Delhi. Later, he went ahead to pursue MBA after 2 years of work experience. He wants to clear off his education loan before he moves on to acquire a new asset like a new flat or property. In the long term, he plans to build on certain assets and needs to grow the corpus and make necessary arrangements. In this story, we deep dive into Som’s personal financial journey in relation to technology.
Banking
- Som finished his schooling in New Delhi in 2010 post which he was planning to move to Calcutta for a year. That was when he felt the need to open a bank account and an ATM to withdraw money. His first bank account was opened with Central Bank as referred by his father.
- Post his graduation in engineering, he joined a tech company. His second bank account which was supposed to be a salary account was opened at the time of employee onboarding. The company had a list of 10–12 partner banks to choose from and Som chose the bank on the basis of offers they were giving in terms of their debit card, net banking, FD interest rates, etc.
SD: So the company gave you a choice amongst who their partner banks were. How did you choose Standard Chartered Bank?
SB: The kind of offers that they were giving in terms of their debit card and Net banking and also FD Interest rates and withdrawal policies. At that point of time I remember in 2015–16, when we used to withdraw cash from ATMs, there used to be an upper limit of withdrawal — 2,3 or 5 times a month and beyond that you were charged a certain amount. Standard Chartered did not have any such additional costs.SD: You said you were also looking at the FD details. What other things were you looking at and why?
SB: They had a portfolio of FDs and RDs as well. I looked at their interest rates and it seemed quite attractive. At that point of time I did not have any immediate plan to open a fixed deposit, but subsequently I had anyways made up my mind that maybe I could go for certain products like FD and RD.SD: You said you had your second bank account with Standard Chartered that was started by Accenture — your employer after your Engineering. What about your third bank account?
SB: During MBA, there are a lot of corporate competitions that are conducted by various organisations and once such competition was conducted by ICICI Bank. We were National finalists and there was some prize money that we were entitled to. Now that particular prize money that we were entitled to was supposed to be transferred to an existing ICICI Bank account. If you don’t have an ICICI bank account, you will have to get one. You have to open a new one. So you understand how these bank products are being offered. (Laughs)
- While Som was pursuing his MBA, he participated in a competition conducted by ICICI Bank and his team was among the national finalists. The team was entitled to some prize money which was supposed to be transferred to an ICICI Bank account only. Since he did not have an existing ICICI Bank account, he chose to open a new account. Along with the prize money, they also offered an amazon pay ICICI credit card which he now uses for shopping as it offers rewards and benefits.
SD: So you have these 3 bank accounts. How are you using these bank accounts today? Which bank has your salary account?
SB: I am still continuing with Standard Chartered Bank as my salary account. Central Bank is only being used for the repayment of my education loan. The third account is also active. I wasn’t much of a risk taker 2–3 years back. In terms of my financials I did not even have a credit card even though I was being offered a credit card by Standard Chartered, I refused it.
SD: Why did you refuse a credit card?
SB: Because of my mindset of not being a risk taker. There was some risk aversion. At the time of Accenture I did not get a huge salary. I did not want to have any more liabilities at that point in time. Because once you avail credit it is a liability for you. At that time I did not want to avail a credit card simply because of fear. Now for ICICI I use the credit card. I purchase from Amazon and also get benefits by using those Credit Cards. I also use my ICICI bank account for certain transactions that have rewards for using my ICICI bank account — Credit or Debit Card.SD: How did you get to know about features of the Amazon Pay card?
SB: The features of the Amazon Pay card were listed at the time of giving me that particular card. I got to know it from there and felt at that point of time that its fine. It is giving me certain attractive products. Why not utilise it? Initially I did not spend much on the credit amount. If I was entitled to a lakh of credit on a monthly basis, I used to spend around 10–20% but now it has gone up to about 20–30%.
Expenses
Som usually makes a rough monthly budget at the beginning of every month and does a rough accounting at the end of the month. He checks his bank statements and keeps track of what was his expenditure compared to the last month. He has installed apps for all three banks to check his transaction history.
SD: How do you pay electricity bills?
SB: We have this digital meter that I have to recharge via Paytm. That is the only mode I can recharge my electricity. It is a prepaid electricity meter. This is for my current residence. For my flat in Calcutta, I can pay it with Paytm or Google Pay or PhonePe.SD: You are spending across a number of platforms. Is checking your bank statement sufficient for a reasonable accounting of your expenses? Do you keep bills?
SB: A significant part is through Standard Chartered. The rest is for a credit card whose bill I pay from Standard Chartered. So combining both these accounts, my monthly expenditure is being catered to. So if I check my Standard Chartered bank statement, it would give me a 90% idea of how my money is being spent.SD: Do you use any tools or apps to keep track of your expenses?
SB: When I was staying as a bachelor in my Accenture days, I used to have Splitwise. It wasn’t for personal expenses though, it was to split the amount amongst my friends or colleagues. But as of now, no tool used for tracking my personal expenses.
Payments
Payment Apps: Usage
- For most of the expenses, Som uses payment apps. Som’s choice in payment apps is governed by cashbacks and rewards offered by various apps. In case the payment is urgent and he doesn’t have the time to look for the best offers, he pays through digital wallets. We can say that Som is a cautious spender as he tries to save as and when he can by looking for offers and cashback on various apps.
- For recharging his phone, he prefers using apps that list out all the plans available so that he can try out different plans depending on his preferences. But he sticks to the airtel app unless there is an offer on any other app.
- It was interesting to know that Som started using his Central Bank Rupay debit card to recharge his electricity meter on PayTM because a convenience fee is levied by PayTM when credit cards, wallets, or any other UPI apps are used.
SD: But isn’t your electricity bill payment a UPI payment?
SB: If I do it through PhonePe, I have to add money to my Wallet. Accordingly, the cashback is returned to my wallet. If it is Freecharge I do it via UPI. If it is via Paytm then Paytm Wallet.SD: How did you start paying it online?
SB: I could see that my father used to receive reminders on his mobile for payment of electricity bills that were outstanding. This was done via an SMS. Also in the SMS, along with the billed amount, there was a link for a website through which I could Repay the electricity bill. I checked and it wasn’t a user-friendly website so I thought why not check it on any other app where the same electricity provider is listed and fortunately I was able to find it on the other apps. That is how I ended up using Freecharge, PhonePe, and Paytm.
SD: After you changed to the Airtel app to make recharges, is there any particular reason you don’t recharge on a Paytm or a PhonePe? Because you use these other apps…why not on Mobikwik?
SB: I did use Mobikwik for a while but I did not find the offers attractive and since I was running out of space on my phone, I decided to delete that particular app. Actually Mobikwik and Paytm — they don’t list out all the plans that are available. When I check the plans via Airtel, they list out all the available plans. This was one major difference — why I chose to continue with Airtel. Occasionally if there is some attractive offer on freecharge or any of the other apps then I go ahead with them. Otherwise mostly its Airtel.SD: What is your range of options? Say you have ordered groceries from Dunzo — what would affect how you would pay your bill? Is it just the offers or it also depends on how much money you have in this wallet and that?
SB: The primary factor is based on the offer. Only if I have to do an urgent payment and I don’t feel like checking out the offers I will use my wallet if I have any money lying there. Otherwise, I usually do check on the offers. On Dunzo I did make a purchase yesterday. The payment I made was through Amazon Pay Wallet because of the offer again. They also have other payment options like LazyPay, Freecharge, and Google Pay and Debit and Credit Cards.
- Som doesn’t like the idea of money getting auto-debited from his account every month as it restricts him to use a certain app for payments and not avail offers from any other app.
SD: But you haven’t taken auto-debit option to pay. Why not? Any particular reason?
SB: Why I decided not to go ahead with an auto-debit option is that it would limit me to utilizing a certain app. For example, if I enable the Auto-debit from my airtel app, I would be restricted and handcuffed to using the Airtel app itself on a monthly basis. So my psychology would be limited to forgetting about the postpaid or broadband payment because it is being automatically debited from my airtel app and I wouldn’t be able to switch and avail offers from other apps.SD: How do you pay for your kindle subscription?
SB: This is one thing that is auto-debited from my bank account (Standard Chartered). Because there was no other option for me to choose from. There was only an auto-debit option for kindle subscription. If I choose to discontinue then that stops.
This interview is broken into two parts. In the second part of the story, we talk about Som’s investments, loans, insurances, life goals, and ambition.
Credits
- Interviewed and transcribed: Soumitro Datta
- Analyzed and published for Medium: Geetika Shukla, Dharmesh Ba
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About the Research
This documentation is a result of the in-person interview, along with the participants’ consent. The interviews might be conducted in their native languages and translated to English in the best possible way to reach a large audience.
Disclaimer: The identities of people and places in this documentation have been changed to honour the privacy of the participants.
About D91 Labs
This research was executed and documented by D91 labs. D91 labs is an open-source initiative by setu.co to help Bharat build great fintech products. We organize and publish user research, insights, and frameworks for fintech in India. Please follow us on medium for more exciting stories and insights on Bharat.
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