The Hindu Business Line : Pre-paid cash cards for train tickets gaining in popularity

More and more people are now using pre-paid cash cards such as Itzcash cards, Done cards and Icash cards to book online train tickets against the earlier days when primarily credit and debit cards were used.

This shows that increasingly people (who do not own credit cards) are now going to the Internet to book their tickets, though there may be a small proportion of people who have taken to using prepaid cards for security purposes. The prepaid cash cards, available for wide ranging denominations (starting from as low as Rs 100), can be used to pay bills for multiple products and services.

Train ticket booking

According to data on online payment methods adopted for online train ticket booking, the share of cash cards has been steadily increasing over the last one year, while the share of credit cards has been slowly declining.

From the total 16.27 lakh tickets booked online in September 2007, 22 per cent online payments were made using cash cards, according to Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) data.

cash cards

In October 2007, 23 per cent of 17.2 lakh tickets were booked using pre-paid cash cards; and November saw further increase in cash card usage with online payments for 24 per cent of 17.8 lakh tickets being made through prepaid cards.

The trend continued in December when cash cards accounted for 25 per cent of 18.4 lakh online tickets and January 2008 (cash cards were used to pay for 26 per cent of 18.8 lakh online ticket booking).

Credit cards

The share of credit cards for online booking has been hovering around 42-43 per cent during the above mentioned period, while rest of bookings are done using debit cards or Internet banking mechanism.

The increase in share of pre-paid cash cards can also be explained by the fact that chances of successful online transactions with pre-paid cash cards is much higher than credit cards, said a source from IRCTC.

“Moreover, many train passengers do not hold credit cards,” added the source.

ItzCash Card Ltd, a subsidiary of Essel Group, had received a funding of $10 million by Matrix Partners India and Intel Capital in 2007.

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