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-   -   Who is your preferred FASTag provider? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/219559-who-your-preferred-fastag-provider-13.html)

Voted ICICI.

I have two Paytm fastags and one from ICICI. I would prefer ICICI anyday.

Once at a toll plaza in Telangana toll was deducted twice from my Paytm account. I was not able to get it back despite multiple followups. The Paytm fastag has no manual contact, all replies are from an automated chat bot and it's really frustrating.

For a recently bought vehicle, I again got a Paytm fastag - would never have taken it but dealer had only one option and I wanted one fast for registration purposes. For this vehicle, I don't see the option to update vehicle number in the app and lack of any manual interface makes it 1000 times more tricky.

ICICI on the other hand has been butter smooth - there is a call center and they are very prompt.

I would advice new buyers to definitely avoid Paytm fastag and opt for one from a bank.

Avoid HDFC FastTag


Good morning. I returned from a Delhi - HP trip and was looking into my HDFC FastTag account. I had gone with HDFC as I bank with them and did not want to deal with multiple financial institutions.

To any new FastTag consumer- avoid HDFC FastTag. Their software developers must have been trained by GoI's NIC division. If there is a painful way to do something, they will find it.

For instance, its not possible to get a FastTag statement for Sept 30 - Oct 9 2022. Sept 30 will be in the historical tab - no matter that its the same year.

The same team must be doing the HDFC iOS app. The recent update was really annoying and getting it to work reminded me of my past experiences with Bank of Baroda.

The HDFC PayZapp team must be different. Its pretty straight forward and simple. I am sure that HDFC will find a way to mess it up.

HDFC Bank has never been known to have user friendly s/w applications. You are right, they are notorious for finding ways to make people's life difficult. I still remember those days when they used to make customer visit branch to reset netbanking password when the world was moving towards more digitalization!

I find ICICI to be a pioneer in this and had pretty good experience with their Fastag service. Be it ordering new one or closing old one, I could just do it online without having to visit branch or follow up with customer care. Even their Fastag interface is very seamless and have some nice features like auto loading the tag when balance is below a threshold so you never have to worry about low balance situation.

I use Icici fastag for both my cars. Being an Icici customer, it is delivered on priority basis. I can go through their app Or internet banking portal to charge it either from my savings account or my credit card. I have never had an issue till date. Even though I have an account with Hdfc too, I don't find their site very good, so refrained from going with them!

I would have voted IDFC if I could. Bought for 2 cars via Driveway Solutions. Was extremely helpful in getting the Tag cancelled and balance refunded while selling the car.

I bought a paytm fastag in 2019. Paid Rs. 500
Cost of the tag is Rs 100.
250 rupees is security deposit.
Another 150 is minimum balance.

So to use it I need to top up my wallet.

I can't understand how they could hold that 400 rupees.

Did anyone cancelled their Paytm fastag and got the refund of security deposit and minimum balance?

My Dad was the one who made the contact and activated with Equitas. Seeing that he was satisfied with their services I requested him to do it for me too. On account of the above, I ve been using Equitas from the very beginning. Very convenient and very helpful people. Easy user interface and simple to load and switch money between fastags.

I did, when I sold my previous car and it was a long arduous process. They would not refund that security deposit. Finally, I filed a consumer complaint and the case was closed with the note that the amount will be refunded in 10-15 working days. Guess what? It never happened and I reopened the complaint. I had to go through this a couple of times with the history before they finally refunded the amount back into the wallet.

I don't trust PayTM or their services till date.

I kind of knew it. They are the biggest of the modern day corporate thugs.

What about the Rs. 150 that they keep as minimum balance. Can we use it ever? Or that too is gone.


Another thing - can we cancel the PayTM fastag without selling the car? In case I want to move to another provider.

You can use it if you have a wallet balance of 151 in total and you end up paying a toll of 151. :) That's what I feel.

If your total wallet balance (including reserved 150) was let's say 200 and you ended up paying 60 for toll, then it will go through because the deficit of 10 will be taken from the reserved balance and then you will be blacklisted until you top up the wallet. In other words, the min balance is only a one-time emergency balance. You can't use any available balance once it is below the threshold of 150.

This way, PayTM pretty much has approx some amount always in reserve which we cannot consume and therefore, they can easily reinvest that amount to make more money. Just imagine 1 Lakh customers using PayTM tag with a balance of at least 100 INR. :)

You can certainly close the PayTM tag and move to another provider. Just select a good reason at the time of closure.

I cancelled it around Jan 2022. The request had to be initiated from the app, for which the link was hidden deep inside a chat with a bot. For the next steps, I had to call customer care who took the next steps and asked me to call back after, I guess, 4 days. Once I called back, they cancelled. This is similar to how some mobile service providers make cancellation of postpaid connections difficult.

Thanks, did you get back the deposit and minimum balance ? I just don't want to deal with these thugs.

There was a one-time charge for the fastg which was probably Rs.150, and a minimum balance that was always blocked for fastag and cannot be used for other Paytm transaction. I am pretty sure I didn't pay a third component as deposit. I got only the minimum balance added back to the main Paytm balance.

How much did you pay for the fastag initially ? I bought it for Rs 500.
Breakup is
250 - security deposit
150 - minimum balance to be maintained
100 - the cost of the tag.

Its Paytm for me. I have used ICICI and HDFC as well. But Paytm is user friendly and need to just maintain the wallet with sufficient funds. Since most of us have Paytm with UPI linked on the mobiles its very easy to fill the wallet with some easy functions like add money automatically etc. So for me Paytm is the best.