Worried about Demonetisation? Know three ways to go cashless

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Declaring a "decisive" war against black money and corruption, Prime Minister Narendra Mod has announced that high denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 will no longer be legal tender.

People holding notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 can deposit the same in their bank and post office accounts from November 10 till December 30.

But if you go cashless, a lot of pain can be spared for you. Know three ways to go cashless.

Use Credit, Debit, Pre-paid cards

With the use of credit cards, you not only have the option of borrowing funds, you also have a time window to repay the fund. The short-term financing window is enough for you to beat the currency exchange rush.

Equally handy are the debit cards. Make online payments for your needs and utility without bothering about pay-backs and going into debt.

You can also use pre-paid cards. These cards are preloaded with funds and is used like a normal credit cards. You will have the peace of paying your utility bills because your funds have already been paid.

Electronic funds transfer

EFT are simple transactions that can be made with computerised network. Such transactions can be made to accounts at the same bank or to different bank accounts. There are three types of ETFs.

National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) is a nation-wide payment system facilitating one-to-one funds transfer. Under this Scheme, individuals, firms and corporates can electronically transfer funds from any bank branch to any individual, firm or corporate having an account with any other bank branch in the country participating in the Scheme.

RTGS' stands for Real Time Gross Settlement, which can be defined as the continuous (real-time) settlement of funds transfers individually on an order by order basis (without netting). 'Real Time' means the processing of instructions at the time they are received rather than at some later time; 'Gross Settlement' means the settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually (on an instruction by instruction basis). Considering that the funds settlement takes place in the books of the Reserve Bank of India, the payments are final and irrevocable.

IMPS  is   real  time  payment  service  that  is  available  round  the  clock.  This  service is offered by National  Payments  Corporation  of  India (NPCI)  that  empowers customers  to  transfer money instantly through banks and RBI authorized Prepaid Payment Instrument Issuer (PPI) across India.

Unified Payments Interface

UPI is a unique payment solution built to empower customers to initiate payment requests through their smartphone. It provides a Virtual Payment Address (VPA), through which users can send and receive money on a two-factor authentication.