#7 | Vijay — Future of Data Sharing

By Dhriti Agarwal, Soumitro Datta and Lakshmi Ajayan

Published in

D91 Labs

13 min readJan 21, 2021

This interview was conducted as a part of ‘Future of Data Sharing’ sponsored by Facebook. In this series, we interviewed participants around their access, adoption, and usage of financial products along with their perception of data sharing to financial institutions.

Disclaimer: The income range was self-reported by the participant. D91 Labs does not request the participants to disclose their exact income.

Short Story

46-year-old Vijay has been working as a bus driver with Mumbai’s Municipal Corporation for more than 22 years now. He lives with his wife and son in the city he was brought up in — Mumbai. Vijay, along with his wife, has been working hard and making varied investments to be able to provide their son with the best education possible and clear his Housing Loan.

Banking

Vijay has 2 joint bank accounts with his wife. He opened the first one with the State Bank of India (SBI) and has a Debit Card associated with it.
It is his salary account but he only uses it to make a few payments and withdraws the rest to give to his wife for household expenses.
Vijay opened a second bank account with Apna Sahakari Bank since he didn’t want to keep all his money in one place and this bank was closer to his house. He has a Debit Card associated with it which is handled by his wife.
Vijay relies heavily on his wife for handling the finances for everything from their son’s tuition fees to Vijay’s Recurring Deposit.

Why did you open your account with SBI Bank?
My elder brother, who has an SBI account, said opening an account with a government bank has its benefits. Any government-related work would happen quickly and since I am also a government employee, it is good.

Payment Modes

Vijay’s preferred payment mode is cash. He uses his SBI debit card to withdraw cash for his household expenses and surplus costs once a month. He doesn’t own a credit card.
His wife makes utility payments through Google Pay but Vijay himself feels that UPI apps and net banking are beyond his understanding.

“My kids say UPI apps are pretty fast but I want to manage my world on my own. I don’t want to take or give money to anybody.”

Why do you say that Net Banking is beyond your understanding?
When I go to the bank, the employees and my wife help me out but when it comes to Net Banking, there are all these options that I don’t understand or need. Take money transfers for instance — my family stays in Mumbai not in my village and even in my friend circle I can use cash. I am not that old yet but maybe it is a generational thing. Earlier we used to go to the bank and fill a form to withdraw money and now we use ATMs. As the facilities provided by banks evolve, the customer also evolves. I’m sure the bank transfer facility will work wonderfully, but all this Net Banking and UPI is beyond me and it’s fine.
You mentioned that your wife uses Google Pay. How has her experience been?
She has been making payments with Google Pay for the past 4 months and finds it quite convenient actually — we don’t have to carry money and there is no physical contact, which is good during COVID-19. But Google Pay also has its issues. Sometimes when there is no network, you have a problem. The other person might say, “He doesn’t have money, so he is pretending to be in this situation.” You never know when such a thing is going to happen — that is the main issue.

Expenses

Vijay’s regular monthly expenses include rent, utility bills, groceries, phone recharges, petrol, cable and medical bills. Annually, he pays his son’s school and tuition fees.
His wife pays for electricity and phone recharges using Google Pay and Vijay uses his SBI debit card to pay for petrol. For all other expenses, they pay in cash.
Vijay uses his Municipal Corporation employee ID for free bus transport to work and uses his bike and car sparingly.

You mentioned that your son’s tuition had an option to pay ₹10,000 every month. Why didn’t you opt for it?
We made 3 deposits — 2 for ₹10,000 and 1 for ₹20,000 and they were fine with it. If you have to give the whole amount anyway, why break it up into pieces and give? If we incur some expenses later, it might be difficult to pay. When you have the money, get it done.

Loans

In 2003–2004, Vijay took a loan from his employer’s credit society to get some jewellery made. After taking up part-time jobs, he was able to clear off the 10-year loan term within 3 years.
Vijay also took a housing loan from SBI in 2015 to buy a 1RK which needs to be repaid in 18 years.
The loan EMI is auto-debited from his SBI account every month, within an hour of his salary being credited.
During COVID-19, after watching the news and heeding a friend’s advice — Vijay deferred the monthly payments for 3 months.

Why did you decide to take your Housing loan from SBI?
I went to 2–3 banks (Bharat Co-operative, SBI and HDFC). I had a friend who had been working in SBI for 15 years who offered the loan at 7.8% interest and extended the 15-year term to 18 years for me. He even set up my Health Insurance, so if anything happens to me, the debt will be waived off, thus benefiting the family. The service was fast and it was also a government bank so there was no tension at all, that is why I went with SBI.
You mentioned that you are worried about repaying this 18-year loan. How are you planning to approach the problem?
I have to repay it within 18 years but in the last 15 years, I have only managed to save 2 lakhs. I am paying ₹1,80,000 per year since 2015 and an 18 lakhs loan is now costing us 30 lakhs. If my son needs it, I will have to take an Education Loan. I didn’t withdraw my PF while buying the house because I didn’t want to exhaust all my savings.Now, because of the lockdown — I can’t withdraw my PF. I don’t know what to do next, the situation is bad.

Investments

Vijay’s keen exploration of investment modes is contrasted by his lack of knowledge regarding the status of these investments.
Vijay has 3 RDs, 2 FDs and investments in stocks and mutual funds.
He has an active Provident Fund that his employer started for him in 1998.

Do you have an idea of how much money has accumulated in your PF account over the last 22 years? How do you keep a track of this amount
Around 8–10 lakhs. I have no plan of breaking it unless it is for our son’s future. Since there are no debits, the amount is just getting deposited and there is no need to check that often. Anyway breaking the PF is a big headache — it is your own money but you won’t get it that easily — they ask for all kinds of documents and processes.

When Vijay’s son was in Class 5, on the school’s recommendation, Vijay created a 3-year term Recurring Deposit for him with SBI. It is still active and Vijay took out some money to make a Fixed Deposit anticipating his son’s future college expenses.
He has 2 more Recurring Deposits for his son — one with Saraswat Bank and another with the Post Office.
Vijay opened 2 Fixed Deposits — one for his wife and another for himself with Apna Sahakari Bank since it provided a 1–2% higher interest rate than government banks.
He invested in a mutual fund with HDFC bank 8–9 months back that auto-debits ₹2000 from his account every month.

How did you buy the HDFC Mutual Fund?
A friend who works in SBI told me about it and helped me out with the paperwork. They said I could deposit as much as I wanted but I wouldn’t be able to withdraw it for a year. They said that the longer I kept the money and the better the market did, the more I would be able to make. So they take ₹2000 every month, let us see how much we can make.

“My friend assured me that whatever happened, I would at least get that original amount of the mutual fund back and if my luck was good, I could double the amount. So I thought let’s put the money in and see what happens.”

Vijay also invested 1 lakh in a stock with a company suggested by his friend in 2019. He received 3–4 installments of ₹5000 but during COVID-19, he was told the share market was facing problems and he stopped receiving money after that.

Who told you about this stock? How has your experience been?
A friend of mine told me when he was investing 2.5–3 lakhs there but at that time I had dismissed the idea because I thought that such schemes make fools out of everyone because it is a matter of luck — if it worked out then well and good but there was a chance of being left with nothing. But for the last 4 years, he had been getting monthly payments of ₹15,000. Thinking about my Housing Loan, I put down an amount so we could save up but after 3–4 payments, the company suddenly disappeared into thin air. I can’t reach them on the phone.

Insurances

Vijay opted for a health insurance plan around 2010 on the recommendation of a friend who had the same plan. He upgraded his plan from 1 lakh to 3 lakhs over time and it covers his wife and son as well.
He makes the premium payments via cheque once a year through an agent after submitting his Aadhar and PAN Card.
Vijay also took a Mediclaim Life Insurance policy while applying for his Housing Loan. In case anything happens to him, the loan will be waived completely.
He also has 3 LIC policies — one 14–15 year policy that matured and two small policies of ₹100–200 that will mature in 2022 and 2025 respectively. He also plans to take out a policy for his son.
HDFC Insurance for his bike and car were provided by the showroom. He makes the premium payments at a nearby petrol pump.

You started with a 1 lakh Health Insurance policy and upgraded it to 2 then finally 3 lakhs. How did you make these decisions?
You only have to pay it once a year and it is for the good of the entire family. I started at 1 lakh and after a while, was questioning the point of having the policy when I had an accident. Out of the total expenditure of more than 1.2 lakhs, the insurance covered 1 lakh so in 2016–17, I upgraded the plan coverage to 2 lakhs. 2 years later, I fell and cracked the ball in my back and it cost me 1.5 lakhs. After that, my wife and I decided to increase the coverage by another lakh and for the last 6 years, I have had a 3 lakh health insurance plan.

Technology

Vijay bought a smartphone in 2016 and is learning how to use it.
He sparingly uses Whatsapp to greet people and call relatives. He uses Facebook to like what others share and Youtube to listen to music and watch wildlife videos.
He tried using the ClubFactory app to buy spectacles and earphones but was disappointed by the quality of products and delivery speed.

You mentioned that you are worried about getting duped or hacked online. Why? Has this happened to known acquaintances of yours?
I don’t understand smartphones and I’m worried that I will accidentally press something and money will go. My expenses are already exceeding what I earn and on top of this, if I get robbed, it will finish me off. Besides, I have read about hackers who are up to all kinds of tricks. It hasn’t happened to any of my acquaintances but I see posts on WhatsApp about people who accidentally revealed their number and PIN code and got hacked. I know that you shouldn’t share your phone number or PIN with anybody.

Data Sharing and Privacy

While Vijay appreciates the speedy service of private banks, his first preference for a loan would be a government bank because he trusts their verification process:

“All private banks want is to give out a Housing Loan for 15 years so they have control over a person for that long. Later, if there is some problem, the bank will still expect you to repay the loan. What will you do?”

If you have to take another Housing Loan, would you consider taking it from a private organisation or only a government bank?
Debt is dangerous so till I close my first loan, there is no question of taking another one. But in an emergency, one cannot discriminate and will take the money wherever he can find it first because you don’t have the time to arrange things the way you want them to be.

We asked the participant what kind of data they would be interested in sharing across the different types of loan providers to borrow a personal loan.

Vijay is uncertain about whether he would share his personal details, documents and bank statements with both government and private banks but he strongly believes that it is important to adhere to set processes:

While applying for a loan, why do you think doing it in person is better than remotely from an app or a website?
Taking the loan is dependent on (human) interaction for me. If I take a loan of 5–10 lakhs and the money goes to the wrong account or something, no one can tell. Big brands (like SBI or HDFC) have this assurance that you are safe and there can be no fraud.

To further cross their statements we asked the participants to choose from two different types of loans based on their varying data requirements and captured their thoughts.

“Everyone wants to save money. I suppose there should be no issue in providing additional ID proof or prolonged access to bank statements in return for a reduction in interest rate. The bank will also get some assurance.”

Vijay is comfortable sharing personal information with government and private banks but not with third parties and is surprisingly willing to pay a higher price for privacy from third parties.

Goals and aspirations

Vijay is committed to providing his son with good education and eventually clearing the Housing Loan. Despite being able to save very little, he has accounted for these expenses through varied investment plans over a decade:

What are your short term goals in the next 2–3 years when it comes to your finances?
My wife saves ₹2000–3000 in a month. I might take a loan from my company’s credit society or BEST society. If this doesn’t do the job, we’ll break our FDs and RDs and if we break the PF, we’ll apply for a bigger Education Loan. As for repaying the Housing loan, we have 1–2 lakhs deposited with the BEST society itself. If there is a financial crunch, we will have to sell the room in Virar and go to our village.

Credits

Interview and transcribed by Soumitro Datta
Analysed and written by Dhriti Agarwal
Edited by Lakshmi Ajayan

Future of Data Sharing:

‘Future of Data Sharing’ aims at designing a playbook for consented sharing to enable financial services in India. The objective of this research is to develop a design toolkit with the upcoming public infrastructure Account Aggregators as the main theme in focus. The toolkit will host resources and assets around designing better user experiences for data sharing and data portability.

Future of Data Sharing is sponsored by Facebook and executed in collaboration with D91 Labs, DICE, Parallel Labs and TTC Labs

Future of Data Sharing by D91 Labs is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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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 organise 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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