#9 | Ipshita — Future of Data Sharing

By Dhriti Agarwal, Soumitro Datta & Lakshmi Ajayan

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

30-year-old Ipshita works as a Logistics Manager at an online shopping company in Kolkata. She stays at her in-laws’ house with her husband, mother-in-law and a pet dog. After completing her BSc. in Interior Decoration, she opted to pick up a managerial position in her current company. She dreams of buying a flat and opening a restaurant or home-delivery service some day.

Banking

• Ipshita has 2 active bank accounts. She also has an account with IDBI bank which was opened before her marriage but is no longer used.
• She then opened an account with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) because of its prompt service and even referred it to her colleagues. The bank account acts as her salary account.
• Ipshita has a debit card linked to it. She uses Net Banking via the SCB app and makes UPI payments on Google Pay and PhonePe.
• After their marriage, Ipshita’s husband opened a joint account for them with the State Bank of India. She has a debit card linked with it and uses the SBI account for online shopping, purchasing consumer durables on EMI and paying her LIC policies. She uses the SBI app on her husband’s phone.
• They use this account to save a fixed amount from their salary every month.

Why did you open your first account with IDBI Bank?
It was suggested by my father who already had an account there and knew the people. I personally liked that the bank as they would send someone home to help get bank work done in case of problems and they would also send gifts or chocolates on special occasions like birthdays and New Year.

Payment Modes

• Ipshita’s most preferred payment method is through UPI apps like Google Pay and PhonePe.
• She uses her debit card for withdrawing cash twice a month. Earlier, she also used it for transferring money from SCB to SBI but after COVID-19 lockdown, she found it more convenient to make the transfer on GPay.
• Ipshita stopped using digital wallets 2 years ago since she got into the habit of using Google Pay.
• She uses the SCB mobile app to track her expenses 2–3 times a month.

Which UPI app do you use most frequently?
I prefer using Google Pay because I feel like it is easier to use. These days, I am avoiding using cash so I use Google Pay for shopping online and offline — from the electricity bill to everything else. I use PhonePe when there is no option for Google Pay.

Expenses

• Ipshita stays with her family in the house they own, hence rent doesn't form a part of her budget. Her regular monthly expenses include utility bills, transport, groceries, phone recharges for her family, food, online shopping, subscriptions and entertainment.
• She makes most of these payments using Google Pay linked to her SCB account, except for local groceries, gas, transport and medicines which she buys with cash.
• Ipshita buys her groceries in bulk once a month at a shopping mall for which she pays with her debit card.
• Her family goes on a vacation once a year for which she carries cash in case of unavailability of ATMs.

Have your shopping habits changed during the lockdown?
Usually, I would buy bulk groceries from the Big Bazaar near my house. During the lockdown, several things were out of stock so I would take whatever I could and bought the rest from other shops in the neighborhood. I’m trying to avoid going out much but this can’t be helped. I also used Amazon after the lockdown reopened to order items I was having trouble buying locally.

Do you have a limit when it comes to the amount that you transfer on Google Pay?
I withdraw a fixed amount at the beginning of the month for managing everyday expenses and I operate keeping that in mind. I try sticking to online payments so I have to visit the ATM fewer times.

Do you keep a written track of your monthly expenses or is it in your head?
Just after marriage, I had to keep some records but now it has become a habit. I know approximately what I need and how much will be spent.

Loans

• In the past, Ipshita had taken no-cost EMIs with her debit card to purchase a phone and AC offline and a fridge and washing machine online.
• She has never opted for any loans, credit cards or pay later options. She might take one to start her own fast food centre if the need arises.

Investments

• Ipshita’s husband manages their investments. Once there is a lump sum amount accumulated in her SCB account, she transfers it to her SBI savings account and her husband handles the rest.
• She makes these transfers on a monthly basis but the amount varies depending on the month’s expenditure.

Insurances

• Ipshita’s father purchased her health insurance before she joined the company. She pays the premiums annually through an agent using Google Pay or cash.
• The health insurance provided by her employer gets auto-debited from her salary annually and covers her husband too.

If your company was providing health insurance, why didn’t you discontinue your personal plan?
It is a private company. I don’t know for how long I will be working here. I have an interest in starting my own business. Keeping this in mind, I continued my own health insurance.

Technology

• Ipshita owns a wide range of devices and has been a smartphone user since her college days.
• She uses a variety of social media and communication apps on a regular basis but hasn’t used them to register on any app or website. She uses Whatsapp for work, audio-video calls and sharing content and links and posts on Instagram and Facebook too.
• After the ban on Chinese apps, she uninstalled Tiktok & ShareIt because they stopped working. She made it a point to delete her Tiktok account before uninstalling.
• Ipshita used to go through apps’ terms and conditions and privacy policies before using them to make sure her privacy would be maintained. These days, she agrees to them without reading.

Why don’t you use your Google or Facebook account to sign into other apps and websites? A lot of people do this to save time during the signup process.
I didn’t know that the sign up process becomes easier by doing this. I usually use my email ID to sign up for apps like BookMyShow, Ola and Uber and stay logged in after that.

Have you changed your privacy settings on WhatsApp or Facebook?
Working in logistics, I keep getting work related messages on Whatsapp from sellers. That is why I have disabled the ‘Last Seen’ option.

Have you ever denied app permission requests?
I usually deny these permissions. If that interrupts the usage of the app, I ask around to check if it is safe to use. I ask my husband, colleagues and seniors — someone from whom I heard about the app in the first place or I have an idea that they can use it. I usually call and ask one of these people. Unless I need to use the app, I deny such permissions.

Data Sharing and Privacy

• Ipshita’s first preference for a personal loan would be Bajaj Finserv since she has already heard of it and taken multiple consumer durable loans from them.
• Her second choice would be fintech apps since it has been very convenient for her to use Google Pay. Her third choice would be her own bank — Standard Chartered.

A lot of people have said that they would trust a government bank more for a loan. You don’t have this mindset?
I trust Bajaj Finserv, Google Pay and SCB based on my own experience of their services. I also trust government banks but I have not used them.

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.

• Ipshita is willing to share her personal, financial and insurance details with all 4 loan providers. She would also be comfortable sharing her KYC details with Google Pay after checking with the people around her.

“Obviously with private companies there is some fear when it comes to trust — you hope that there will be no problem when you are sharing information but I am not comfortable enough to share my investment details.”

You mentioned that you would only trust a government bank with your investment details. Why?
I would obviously not mind sharing this information with a Government Bank. I think that the data is more safe with them. I wouldn’t say that there is absolutely no chance of it getting a little scattered here and there, but they can be trusted.

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.

I will go for the loan with a lower interest rate. I think it is better to do a comprehensive verification before taking a loan. If I go to someone for a loan, it means that I trust them. If they want to verify if I can be trusted, I have no problem with it.

I will go with Lender-I where I’m getting a safe zone that the information I’m sharing with them won’t be shared with anyone else. I don’t want to pay lesser interest and have my personal information shared with other people. If I am taking a loan from the bank, its okay if the information stays between me and the bank.

Goals and aspirations

What are your short-term and long-term goals?
My husband and I are planning to buy a flat soon. I have no long-term plan as such but we have our LIC policies. I dream of opening a restaurant or home-delivery service. I don’t know what will happen but I am trying to get this going.

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 data 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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