Team-BHP - PayTM FASTag: Are you keeping it or ditching it?

Voted for holding on to PayTm.

One convenience of Paytm has been a common balance for multiple tags. I don't need to recharge each tag as whichever tag goes through a toll, auto-debits the common wallet balance. This gives the benefit of auto top-up without exposing your bank account.

I am not sure if any other provider gives a similar feature. For now, I am topping up my Paytm wallet with 5k, which should push my decision-making window by a few months.

Raised the request to close PayTM FASTag the next day after hearing about the Paytm Payments Bank closure (i.e. 1-Feb-2024). But in my case the FASTag closure got stuck and even after 8 days the status was Closure Initiated.

Reached out to PayTM FASTag support and the next day my FASTag was successfully deactivated. The reserve balance + security deposit was refunded to the wallet which I immediately transferred to my bank account.

Then I tried to apply for ICICI FASTag but couldn't. The online portal to apply only accepts 10 character registration number and mine is 9. Reached out to ICICI customer care and they said there is no workaround to this. I can only apply for an ICICI FASTag at the nearest toll plaza.

So I then tried with HDFC. And the whole process was very smooth and without any issues. Even the KYC was done immediately on a video call. Now waiting for the FASTtag to arrive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oppanna (Post 5716969)

I Initiated the closure of PayTM fastag on 1st February 2024 and yet to receive the refund. On 2nd February I went to a nearby toll plaza and picked up IDFC Fastag and it was activated in 15 mins.

Used on the drive next day and worked flawlessly.

Got the refund of only Rs 150 to my PayTM wallet and absolutely silence from the customer care when asked about the security deposit of Rs 250!

How do I handle this? There has been no response on their chat, email, customer care ( it is next to impossible to reach out to them and speak to an executive)

My understanding of the situation is as follows:

PayTM payments bank (PPBL) has some serious malpractices which have resulted in RBI asking them not to take any more deposits from consumers post 29th Feb 2024. This covers the wallet services as well which FastTag is associated with for toll payments.
The wallet service will be discontinued eventually and therefore FastTag recharges will now have to be associated with other wallet services, which I believe PayTM is working hard to comply with and not lose customers.
Balance in the wallet can be utilized after Feb 29th, but no recharges. If you have not completed your KYC for any reason (Which can be checked on the PayTM app - a badge signifies it) then the wallet will be suspended. You may also have received a notification from PayTM indicating so, which many have likely missed.
Assuming (2) will be accomplished, it is unclear how balance transfer and security deposits will be transferred. A clean transfer seems unlikely and problems are very likely to happen resulting in end-users being stuck at toll booths or facing problems.

Given this, I believe it is better to start clean with a new, established provider of your choice.

TLDR ; use the website and not the mobile app to add fastags with icici else icici will make multiple wallets that have to be preloaded (unlike paytm and any other competitor out there.)

Icici is running a scam. I switched three car fastags from paytm to icici only to learn that they've made three different accounts with icici against my existing savings account. Thereby I now have 3 wallets for 3 cars! I have as yet to transfer 2 more!

I set up auto load for all 3 cars considering it can be used for fuel payments in a pinch or after a mugging incident wherein one can lose a phone and watch (which I have backup Samsung pay on) and then only a fastag sticker can come to the rescue. I set up auto load of 4.5 (trigger) and 2k (top up) so I ended up with 6k in each wallet (18k tied up in fastags without interest?!)

Given my auto load rules, I am looking at this growing to potentially a max of 6.5k in each wallet via auto load. That's about 19.5k tied up. If I add two more cars, I'm looking at 32.5k.

I wrote to icici about this malpractice since there should be just one wallet for each customer. They responded after much to and fro to the effect that - one must use the website to add fastags and not the mobile app if said person wants one wallet for multiple fastags. As a result I now have to reapply and discard my additional stickers since I'll have them all work behind one wallet (at this point just a loss of 200 rupees for 2 cars and some time and frustration.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by sameerg (Post 5717149)

I have HDFC fastag and it has similar feature. I have two fastag for two cars and I recharge a common wallet linked to these two fastag. No need to recharge each fastag individually and your account details are not exposed. You can add multiple tags to the same wallet too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SideView (Post 5716957)

Any particular reason why ICICI?

Seems most people are preferring ICICI. (Atleast the current trend)

For me it was convenient, though I don't have an ICICI account. I deactivated the Paytm one, and started looking for a new FASTag. The SBI one was too complicated. HDFC, I wasn't getting any OTP for logging in. Tried ICICI, it was a breaze within 5 mins. the process was completed. Next day got the Tag no. on the fourth day, at around 8:00am the FASTag was delivered.

Have switched to ICICI, since I have an ICICI bank account & also as that was the second best option here - Who is your preferred FASTag provider?.

While the PayTM fastag was going strong, I felt the RBI's directives this time were stronger. And, I hear that users could be 'ported' to any one of the banks en masse, so I wanted to avoid getting a surprise Fastag provider.

And now, while the PayTM tag is still in the "closing initiated" state since Feb 1, I received the ICICI tag in 2 days, stuck it to the windshield and have been through tolls successfully, proving that it was the right move to do.