Note worthy: Unlike cash, pre-paid cards can help you put a limit on your expenditure

On his way back home from the airport, Sanjay Goenka, a financier and sole proprietor of Verity Financials, was stuck in a traffic jam. He was in a taxi travelling from the north of the city to the extreme south via the Eastern Bypass, where he couldn?t locate ATM centres belonging to his bank. Used, as he was, more to using his credit and debit cards, he watched helplessly as the meter rose steadily. ?I had very little cash with me and I wished I had taken a pre-paid cab because in such situations you never know what the bill will ultimately come to. And you would be less stressed if you?d already paid for the ride.?

Not just taxis, according to marketing experts, the concept of ?the pre-paid? is now really in demand among consumers of all sorts of goods and services. From the ubiquitous pre-paid cellular phone connections to pre-paid landline telephone cards ? with their local and long-distance call facilities ? pre-paid is now the new buzzword. So much so, that now a pre-paid card for shopping and conducting other financial transactions online has been introduced to the Indian market. Called ITZ Cash ? the ?multi-purpose? card with which one can also surf the Net, play online games, including Playwin, as well as book railway tickets ? it was launched in Calcutta two weeks ago.

?There are a number of reasons for the popularity of pre-paid cards,? explains Gurpreet Bakshi, head of marketing, sales and distribution, Intrex India Limited, the company which has launched ITZ cash. ?First of all, when a consumer has paid for goods or service beforehand, he doesn?t worry about incurring unexpected costs, which he may find himself unable to meet,? Bakshi explains. According to him, the unique selling point of a concept such as ITZ Cash is that ?unlike a debit or a credit card which exposes the online customer to possible risks of being defrauded, a pre-paid cash card puts a lid on the amount, thereby minimising risk?. That is, because the cards are available in different denominations ? from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000 ? it is only your card amount that you risk losing, in case of fraud, rather than an indefinite amount.

To illustrate the point, Bakshi gives the following example. ?If you make a purchase online for an amount of Rs 100, using your credit card,? he says, ?in the event of someone getting hold of your password and account number with the intention of fraud, you can be cheated out of much more than just Rs 100. On the other hand, if you are making a purchase of Rs 100 using your pre-paid card with a Rs 100 denomination, you lose nothing.?

There are other pre-paid concepts, which have caught on in a big way. The most obvious of these, of course, are the pre-paid plans of various mobile phone companies. ?I have switched from a post-paid plan to a pre-paid one,? says one customer, who uses the cash-card of a leading Calcutta cellphone service-provider, ?to keep the expenditure under control. Earlier, I used to make unnecessary calls and send short-text messages just because I had the option of paying later. Then, the bills would catch me by surprise. Now, I know I have so much balance left and I don?t waste it.?

Another popular pre-paid concept is the landline telephone card. The India Telephone Card, launched by BSNL, enables the user to make local, STD or ISD calls using the pre-paid card, which, like ITZ Cash, also comes in different denominations (Rs 100 to Rs 500). The call can be made using any telephone instrument with dialling facilities and receiver but the telephone line from which the call is made using the card incurs no cost.

According to S.K. Bhaduri, general manager, customer relations, Calcutta Telephones, ?It is a very popular plan because even consumers who do not have long-distance calling facilities at home can make calls using this card. It also has a shelf life of over 18 months.?

The Metro Railway?s pre-paid ticket is a familiar concept to anyone who takes the subway back and forth from work every day. Says one regular passenger, ?It is very convenient because you don?t have to stand in long queues to buy tickets. And this helps because even if you arrive at the station in the nick of time, you can usually catch the train.? Metro Railways authorities claim that there are plans to introduce ?smart cards? for Metro passengers by April. According to Pishupati Sudhakar, general manager, Metro Railways, these cards, which will look like credit cards, will be different from the existing pre-paid tickets because the card will last until the balance is exhausted. Right now the validity of the card expires on a certain date whether or not you have balance remaining.

play your card

Where to get itz cash:

According to Bakshi, ?We are in the process of closing in on as many pre-paid card outlets ? as well as cyber cafes and dish TV dealers ? as possible, to retail ITZ cash.? But at the moment it can be ordered and home-delivered by calling, toll-free ? 1600-22-1600 or ordering on the Internet by logging onto www.indiatimes.com. The card explains just how to go about making the purchases ? whether booking railway tickets or shopping for other goods online.

How to use it:

The pre-paid card gives you detailed instructions. Once you have chosen the item you want to buy ? enter Itz Cash, in the field where you have to state the mode of payment. After this, you will have to quote your password.