PayTM POS App review - Is it worth it?
Following the recent demonetisation by the Government of India, mobile wallet firms have been leaving no stone unturned to benefit with the cashless, or the digital payments mode. PayTM is at the forefront of such ventures. One of the recent offers from the company is PayTM POS app which is said to facilitate the merchants to switch to digital payments mode. Here is a little insight into the app.
PayTM has been trying all opportunities to work the current trend of cashless transactions to its benefit. It has been upping its ante to allure its customers to use the app to make purchases through the app. Now, it has come up with an app for the merchants. The new POS app envisages enabling the merchants to receive the payments through debit or credit cards.
What is POS payment?
POS means Point Of Sale system. The POS system will allow merchants to receive payments through credit or debit cards. In the traditional way of using a POS system, a merchant needs to use a card swipe machine. The card swipe machine needs to be obtained from the bank with which you have maintained your account.
As the nature of the payment method goes, it may not be suitable for the roadside vendors like your vegetable vendor. PayTM says the app has been developed for those small merchants who cannot get a regular card swipe machine. What is PayTM POS app?
As we stated it above, the traditional POS system cannot be a solution for the small merchants, like a chaiwallah, or a vegetable vendor. PayTM has developed the app for those vendors - just to enable them to use digital payments system so that they can accept payments through credit and debit cards. 
The card swipe machines - or EDCs as they are known as - are expensive and you need to buy them or rent them from your bank. The cost runs into a few thousand and that can be an issue for most of the small time vendors. The PayTM app gives them a virtual swipe machine - that resides on their phone. The virtual machine is linked to their PayTM account, and thus they can later transfer the amount to their Bank account.
Post demonetisation, a few merchants have moved to E -Wallets and have been accepting payments through them. But, that has an issue. If your vendor has a PayTM account, you will need to have a PayTM account on your phone. While if he has a MobiKwik account, you need to have the same installed. Moreover, you will have to load money into each of these wallets. That goes to be a little inconvenient. That is exactly what PayTM wants to solve.How Does the system work?
The PayTM POS system would need the merchant to have the app installed on their phone and a working internet connection. The app will let the merchant accept payments via credit or debit cards. That way, you will not need to load money into your E-Wallets. Thus you will not be tied to your E-Wallets. Wherever PayTM is accepted, you can use your credit or debit card to make payment.
Here we go with the details on how it works -
The online transactions have now been combined with the POS transactions to facilitate the small vendors. The only difference is that you use your phone and your PayTM account while performing an online transaction yourself, while in this case you use the vendor's phone to complete the transaction. Is it secure?
Well, that has a few concerns. On the part of the developer itself, PayTM launched the service in November 2016 amid much fanfare, and it was an instant hit. However, PayTM recalled the app very next day. It stated that the service has security concerns. Later on, the service was resumed again in two days. However, PayTM has not indicated what exactly has changed. But it has stated that it is no more risky than using a credit or debit card on a card swipe machine.
The app should have had a few better features. You are forced to enter your card details for every transaction on your seller's phone. That could be something quite disturbing when you have to wait for the transaction to get over. The transaction that could have been completed within 10 minutes in the pre demonetisation days will now take around 20 minutes or so. The OTP can sometimes take a few minutes to be received on your phone. That would mean the interface and the transaction process needs to be overhauled a little.
Then there are a few security concerns that can't be ignored. You are entering your card details including the CVV number on the merchant's device. What if the vendor steals the information? There are many software tools available that can be used to get the information of card details. Even if your merchant has no evil intent, the phone itself may contain malware, and your details can be accessible to hackers.What would we suggest?
Well, the initiative holds a lot promise. And a good intent of letting the small vendors accepting the payment through credit and debit cards. But, there are the issues we cited that can be quite risky from the security point of view.
There is the two factor authentication in the form of OTP that can be a relief, though. Also, PayTM has stated that no card details and other information either on the app, or its servers. Even then, there are certain issues involved here. If your card has international usage enabled, your card number, CVV and expiry date would be enough as there is no two factor authentication in foreign countries.
Given those concerns, we would advise you to stick to the old way of making payments. Just load your E- Wallet and make payments through PayTM Wallet. That would be more secure.
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Hi people i request you all not to use the paytm pos machine because they have the worst service ever they are worst in everything strongly recommended not to use it.