[shancz]

Originally Posted by Ananthponraj

1. For new Airtel Fastag users (being an existing Airtel Wallet user) - I think the Airtel Fastag would be linked to Wallet - Is that right ?
2. For new Airtel Fastag users ( without Airtel Wallet ) - Would Airtel provide option to create a Wallet & link Fastag to Wallet or force to have Airtel SBA & link Fastag to SBA ?

1. Yes and the wallet can be recharged by linking any other bank account to airtel UPI.
2. Airtel wallet is accessible to customers even without an airtel connection so I think you would just need to download the Airtel Thanks app and it should work.
The Airtel SBA isn't mandatory for anything, it would make things more streamlined but I think the Fastag links to the wallet which can be auto recharged via a standing instruction or an easier version of it if you're in the Airtel ecosystem.
Links for reference:
- Airtel Money
- Airtel Payments Bank Homepage

[Ananthponraj]

Originally Posted by shancz

The Airtel SBA isn't mandatory for anything, it would make things more streamlined

Thank you shancz for the detailed reply and links. This is helpful.
I looked in to the FAQs, which highlights the differences between wallet and Payments Bank Account. Bank Account has advantages over wallet as it gives interest on the account balance (on monthly basis) and also has Personal Accidental Insurance of 2L for the customer, though it comes with the Annual charges that I had mentioned in my previous post #252
There is a particular question around the validity of the Wallet ( pasting it below)
"Wallets acquired through OTP based e-KYc have a validity of one year from the date of onboarding. If not upgraded to a Savings Bank account within one year the services on these wallets shall be closed. Cashloading wallets have a validity of 2 years post which any credit transaction will be blocked."
Going by this, I think Airtel Wallet being a Cashloading wallet needs to be upgraded to SBA after 2 years for continuing operations (I could be wrong)

[saket77]

If other's can offer Fastag without wallets, why can't PayTM Fastag work without a wallet? Can an arrangement be made to directly recharge the Fastag by PayTM? Agree that the multipurpose wallet was the charm of this particular tag, but then even if this arrangement can be made by the company, then at least we save the time and effort to cancel, reorder, remove and repaste the new tag- essentially for the same functionality?

[shancz]

Originally Posted by Ananthponraj

Going by this, I think Airtel Wallet being a Cashloading wallet needs to be upgraded to SBA after 2 years for continuing operations (I could be wrong)

Thanks for this info, I haven't come across this yet but by the end of this month I will complete 1 year.
Not sure if this would also apply to Airtel customers who would have done the KYC and aadhaar verification in person at their center.

I have already bitten the bullet and ordered the Fastag so will see how the wallet to SBA thing pans out. I don't mind an SBA as Paytm's savings bank account was quite useful with its fingerprint validation for payments.

Originally Posted by saket77

If other's can offer Fastag without wallets, why can't PayTM Fastag work without a wallet?

- Internally they would all maintain something like a wallet since its a prepaid recharge and I am assuming that the balance is maintained at the bank's level.
But can Paytm expose that layer for an external recharge is the question but it wasn't designed like so. I doubt making this change would be in their top items now.

[discBreak]

I am thinking to move my fastag to IDFC, my father has been using it for his Carens and the app and the customer care seems responsive and good, not like Paytm where it is difficult to talk to a person. Also, one thing that I was looking for is like the fastag wallet amount not getting stuck to be used just on toll plaza, so IDFC gives option to pay at HPCL pump using fastag, so incase if I have some extra fund in fastag wallet that I am not using I can use to fuel my scooter using HP pay app (ICICI too has this option).

[HighRevving]

Guys, please consider this post as my detailed experience dealing with Airtel Fastag. Please use caution while dealing with them or buying their Fastag.

In February 2020, I had ordered Airtel Fastag for my Octy from their official channel. Now at that time, the car was being transferred from company to my name so they were running an HDFC Fastag on the car. The admin pressurised me to change my Fastag so I could not wait any longer and bought a Paytm Fastag at one of these toll booths. Stuck it, recharged it and drove it all along.

The Thar has BoB Fastag, which is a little hard to recharge on other apps, but a direct transfer to the UPI ID of the Fastag works just fine. The KIA runs an IDFC tag, which surprisingly has a very convenient web interface plus supports recharge on most UPI apps. The Bimmer had SBI, which had an elaborate KYC process, so I left some balance on it and bought a Paytm Fastag and that has been working well so far.

Now that Paytm is going bust, at least from wallet perspective, the need to change came about. I ordered a new Fastag for the Bimmer when I haven't cancelled the SBI Fastag or the currently active Paytm Fastag; I used the Paytm app and an HDFC tag reached me, no questions asked. Completed full KYC on HDFC for peace of mind.

Back to the Airtel Fastag.

When I tried to replace the Paytm Fastag for the Octy, I got an error stating the Fastag has been blacklisted. I was trying to buy one from HDFC, so if it was the tag that the company was using before I got it, they would have simply recovered any dues and reissued a new one.

Now among the two inactive tags, I was pretty much sure it was the Airtel one that was causing trouble. I checked their website and they have blamed it on NETC.

Pure, 100% garbage.

I have used other bank Fastags and I would assume someone would only blacklist a tag if there were pending dues. I checked my dues on the Airtel app and since I never even stuck it on the windshield, I was very sure there would be nothing.

I am not masking my car number so everything is transparent. Here you can see, there are no dues but Airtel have blacklisted my car number, maybe because they want me to go begging back to them to activate it. I tweeted to Airtel tagging all the departments including Payments Bank, but there was no response. Of course, their intentions were never good to begin with, so this was expected.

I called 400, asked them to remove the blacklisting and let me move on in life - they said they cannot remove the blacklisting or close the tag without activating it. I was asked to submit an attested copy of my DL and a hand-written letter stating that I have not used the Fastag by mistake and request them to activate the tag again. For the life of me, I don't know where that tag is, I never even opened it.

In parallel, I tried recharging the tag to see if it would get activated. No luck, tried every app, every UPI, every wallet, but no luck.

After a lot of deliberation, I decided to write to them with my ID and a hand-written letter asking them to activate the tag. Sent them the email to wecare@airtelbank.com and followed it up with another call to 400. They said the documents are fine but I have to activate my Payments Bank savings account by completing KYC otherwise they wouldn't be able to recover (yes, INR 0.00) from me.

So I completed the KYC today and activated my bank account - called 400 again and they said they will debit 150.00/- towards Fastag in 2 hours. After 2 hours, as expected nothing happened. Customer care asked me to manually recharge the tag from my Payments Bank, which I promptly tried to do but the transaction would fail and the amount get refunded.

Called 400 again. Customer care said they have no clue of how Fastag gets activated but suggested the amount may get debited in 24 hours. Here I am, waiting for the 24 hours to complete so someone from Airtel backend will remove the blacklisting and allow the tag to be recharged. Once that is done, I will cancel the tag and buy one from HDFC.

In the meanwhile, just to be sure, I checked if it is Airtel that has blocked the tag and it is not some funny episode with HDFC or Paytm. This was the result.

Imagine, for a customer who never used their tag or owed them a rupee is made to run around like this. I have left 500/- in the Payments Bank waiting for them to debit it and release my car number from NETC database.

By far, the worst experience with any bank when it comes to Fastag. I would strongly suggest anyone considering Airtel to look elsewhere as getting a Fastag from them is a trap - they will want you to stay in it and use their Bank and services and make your life very difficult. For someone who doesn't owe them anything, having to go through this is pure torture. My suggestion, please avoid Airtel.

[Ananthponraj]

Originally Posted by HighRevving

Customer care said they have no clue of how Fastag gets activated

Completely agree with you - I had called the Airtel CC and asked about the Airtel Money Wallet, Airtel Payments Bank and Airtel FASTag - But their response was very vague and didn't give any detailed explanation. They have a set of standard responses ( send a hand written letter with sign, POA/POI etc) for certain queries ( like Wallet activation, unable to load money etc), apart from that if you ask any clarification on the actual problems you may be actually facing - no proper response.

[libranof1987]

Had Paytm Fastag on a car, got that cancelled and ordered one from HDFC. Paytm has made the Cancel Fastag option very difficult to find on the app, so it took me a while to get that done. For some reason, even their Customer Support IVR doesn't mention Fastag as an option.

Ordering the Fastag from HDFC was a breeze; at the end of the application, it directs you to video KYC. However, that link didn't work. So, we got a link from the bank official a few days later for full KYC. Received the tag in three calendar days.

[Ananthponraj]

Has anyone successfully closed their Paytm FASTag after Jan 31?.
I raised the request for FASTag closure through the Paytm app on Jan 31 and the Fastag status shows as Closure initiated - "Closure request for this tag was placed on 31 Jan 2024. Refund for deposit will be initiated within 5-7 working days."


The status of the ticket related to this closure request in their 24x7 Help on the first day mentioned - "We will wait for any previous pending transaction to be provided by Toll Plaza for 3 days and will close the TAG by 03-02-2024."

Post that there has been no progress, everyday I message them through the App, Twitter but nothing has changed. I called up their customer care after Feb 03, after IVR selections, waited for 30+ mins to connect with an executive but couldn't go through. Finally I was able to speak to one of the executive yesterday after 10 mins wait and he said he is not sure why the Fastag hasn't been closed, so he will escalate and asked me to wait for 3 more days. If the Fastag doesn't get closed, he asked me to call again.
Looks like this is going like the scene in the movie

[Oppanna]

Originally Posted by Ananthponraj

Has anyone successfully closed their Paytm FASTag after Jan 31?.
I raised the request for FASTag closure through the Paytm app on Jan 31 and the Fastag status shows as Closure initiated - "Closure request for this tag was placed on 31 Jan 2024. Refund for deposit will be initiated within 5-7 working days.

I have initiated the closure on 1st Feb 2024 and the status is as mentioned by you. Neither I have received the refund nor the status has been changed. I get a message that I will get the refund by 11th February 2024!

On 2nd February I rode to a nearest toll booth and got myself an IDFC fastag and it was activated within 15 mins, drove to Mangalore on 4th and the tag was active.

[HighRevving]

Originally Posted by HighRevving

Customer care said they have no clue of how Fastag gets activated but suggested the amount may get debited in 24 hours. Here I am, waiting for the 24 hours to complete so someone from Airtel backend will remove the blacklisting and allow the tag to be recharged. Once that is done, I will cancel the tag and buy one from HDFC.

I tried again and again to recharge the tag from Airtel Payments Bank and it bounced every single time. Tired of speaking to customer service at 400 and waiting, I decided I will try something else. This hack may come in handy if you are struggling with Airtel Fastag.

I initiated the tag recharge by selecting "pay bill" (strange option for prepaid, I know) and it initiated a 10/- transaction. Remember this used to always fail with Payments bank so this time I tried PhonePe and 10/- got credited successfully. Another 140/- got debited from Payments Bank immediately and 150/- was credited to the tag, activating it instantly.

I haven't been able to close the Airtel tag, but the moment the blacklist was off, I bought an IDFC fastag - have had good experience with their web and app experience so far, using it for the Kia.

I could have bought an HDFC tag, but the old corporate tag is not cancelled, so it was creating issues. I have reactivated that tag as well and asked the company to close it. What a painful experience this has been, with Airtel.

Originally Posted by Ananthponraj

Has anyone successfully closed their Paytm FASTag after Jan 31?.

I have initiated the closure for the Bimmer but it says closure initiated; I don't think it should be a problem as long as you can buy a new one - the deposit will have to be refunded and reconciled by them before February 29 anyway, so I am not worried. However, once mine gets closed, I will keep you posted.

[DetectiveMiles]

Now if you go to PayTM app and try to order new FasTag, they are shipping HDFC FasTag. I was looking to close my PayTM FasTag, trying to figure, just stumbled upon order new FasTag option still present! I'm still not closing it as I have trip coming up, if no further resolution for FasTag comes, I will close existing PayTM one and move to ICICI FasTag, thanks to good reviews from members here.

[car_addict]

Originally Posted by Ananthponraj

Has anyone successfully closed their Paytm FASTag after Jan 31?.
I raised the request for FASTag closure through the Paytm app on Jan 31 and the Fastag status shows as Closure initiated - "Closure request for this tag was placed on 31 Jan 2024. Refund for deposit will be initiated within 5-7 working days."

I closed 3 Fastags exactly on Jan 31. I was also waiting for the closure. Today @ 2pm, all 3 of them got closed and money was refunded back into the wallet. I did not do any follow-up or escalation. The confusion seems to be that they say 5-7 days in one place and in other places they tell 7-10 days.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by Ananthponraj

Has anyone successfully closed their Paytm FASTag after Jan 31?.

I had initiated the closure of my Paytm Fastag on 6th Feb morning and got the balance in the wallet on 9th Feb evening. The Fastag status has changed from "Closure Initiated" in green to "Closed and Refunded" in orange. The history and details of the previous tag are still visible in the Fastag section.
I hope you also uploaded the pic of your destroyed Fastag. You can still do that if you haven't.

As for the Airtel Fastag that I ordered on the same day, I am yet to receive it and I have accidentally deleted the SMS but the app indicates that its dispatched but without any tracking info.

Looking at the issues folks are facing with Airtel Fastag, I will be cautious while activating it. I am not a fan of their call centers so will visit the airtel store nearby of anything crops up. Will update.

[Ananthponraj]

Originally Posted by shancz

I hope you also uploaded the pic of your destroyed Fastag. You can still do that if you haven't.

Yes, I did upload the destroyed FASTag on 5th Feb, but there has been no progress. And for New FASTag, I opted for ICICI through Amazon Pay and got that delivered in 2 days, working fine now.