[redindian75]

I struggled a lot with this exact problem during my trip to India last year, so I am your perfect NRI customer. I don't have an Indian phone number, so GPay and PayTM were out of reach. So I had to use my parents' phone everywhere. This app is great for my next visit.

However, in-person-branch-verification is a big non-starter for me. It needs to be more convenient than visiting a branch. If I have to visit a branch, I might as well open an NRE account; there's an ICICI on every street. I checked your list and I don't see any Tier 2 cities. There's nothing all over Tamil Nadu and Kerala except Chennai.

So, in the absence of a 24/7 kiosk or manned counter in every major international airport (3-4 in each state), you need to have an option for pre-verification online/FaceTime/webcam or via document upload. Otherwise, the inconvenience of a branch visit negates any usefulness.

Also, why restrict the app to work only in India? I should be able to load money and withdraw money wherever. Just disable the payment part.

[sudshekhar]

> Otherwise, the inconvenience of a branch visit negates any usefulness.

Unfortunately, existing regulations in India mandate a one-time physical verification before we can unlock you for a full-fledged prepaid account without applying artificial limits.

Our team is definitely looking into way to make this entire process online and as hassle-free as possible. And we're looking for ways to unblock activation directly at airports.

Will keep you posted as things develop.

> Also, why restrict the app to work only in India?

I am unsure but somewhere in the RBI regulations it says prepaid wallets are only supposed to work while customers are in India. At least that's what we've been informed by the lawyers. Hence transactions are currently disallowed from outside.

But if enough folks adopt Cheq, I am confident we can ask the government for relaxations. Technically, its super easy for us.

[jrumbut]

Hey best of luck with this! I would have loved something like this on my trip to India.

To get anywhere and do anything required increasingly elaborate setups and even personal password sharing between myself and new inlaws that hardly knew me.

A lot of time and money was wasted and somehow in the process I was banned from Uber for several months.

I have the same advice for you I would give to basically every other business that caters to tourists in India: charge a lot more and make it a lot more convenient. If you need in-person verification and can't get an airport kiosk, give me an option to pay $50 and have someone come to my hotel or have someone pick me up and bring me to Cheq. It's so difficult to get around before you get some kind of digital payment setup.

[sudshekhar]

Thank you for the encouragement. I hope you get to use this app on your next visit.

> charge a lot more and make it a lot more convenient.

We're trying to introduce doorstep verification services. And establishing good unit economics is definitely our current biggest problem.

50$ will make our investors very happy but then customers might complain.

[shri_krishna]

> 50$ will make our investors very happy but then customers might complain.

Look at the pain points of customers. It is obvious they are willing to pay higher price for convenience. Anyone visiting India would not complain about $50. Especially since you say it is a one time fee for opening the account. You need to rethink your price. You can even make it an annual fee so you have consistent revenue. The current pricing model is nuts. $10 is too cheap for foreigners.

EDIT: You write elsewhere that there is a markup of 3.5% on top per transaction. Is this credit card fees or your own markup on top of the credit card fees? If it is the latter, then I would advise you against it. Rather take 1 time payment annually ($50 or even $100) instead of 3.5% markup per transaction.

[sudshekhar]

The 3.5% is basically the international credit card markup, cheq doesn't make any money on this.

A flat $30-$50 fee will easily cover for most of these costs though.

We can cover the 3.5% markup plus provide doorstep verification service to customers

Thanks for the suggestion. We'll definitely try a variant of this soon

[shri_krishna]

Even if you put a flat $30-$50 fee, make it have limited validity (with an expiration date). Like you have in SIMs. Many foreigners buy throwaway SIMs on arrival. Most of these SIMs have limited validity. You can use the same concept here as well. It makes no sense to charge a flat fee for eternity. Also, coming to think of it, tying up with a SIM provider would be a great idea. In the same kiosk/booth, foreigners can purchase SIM as well as get a Cheq verified account. You can share a % revenue with SIM provider and not have to hire extra staff. The SIM provider would have all the necessary setup anyways for physical verification. Just reuse that setup.

[jrumbut]

> 50$ will make our investors very happy but then customers might complain.

I definitely am suggesting a higher touch service, so you're providing real value for that higher price and can keep the $10 service for the budget traveler (that would be very nice of you).

That said, there are a lot of moving parts and surprises when starting a business, so keeping it simple to start makes sense.

I just want to encourage you as someone who has suffered the pain point you're describing to think big and realize that there is a segment of your audience who is willing to really spend money if you can offer them convenience and time-savings.

[SSLy]

> It's so difficult to get around before you get some kind of digital payment setup.

FWIW your outside-of-India Uber account should Just Work™.

[OJFord]

That was my experience, GP said they were inadvertently banned though, that would be annoying and limiting anywhere, but potentially hard to sort while travelling (and cope in the meantime). Not least because these things insist on coupling themselves to phone numbers.

[jrumbut]

Oh it very much did not just work (this was a little over a year ago so maybe things have changed?). Neither did anyone else's in my group.

Eventually I tried adding an Indian friend's payment card and I got an email saying I had been banned for suspicious activity or something.

The email made it sound permanent and I never got notified of my unbanning but my Uber account now works in the US and Canada again.

[SSLy]

Well, I've spent a month in India just a year ago and my Uber experience was indeed very smooth. I've just used my Polish card, phone number, etc. with no attempt to swap those things to Indian ones.

[jrumbut]

Yeah this appears to be a US specific thing. No American stuff worked, people from countries that were not the US were fine.

[Uselessly1691]

I'm using BHIM app and Phonepe outside india but i have to insert indian simcard in the phone to do this transactions.

[dheera]

> However, in-person-branch-verification is a big non-starter for me. It needs to be more convenient than visiting a branch.

This is an issue with using AliPay and WeChat Pay in China as well. If you want to access the full spectrum of services including reserving train tickets, flights, and hotels with online payments, you need to get a local SIM card and mobile phone number, and then with that plugged in and working, visit a bank branch and set up a bank account in-person. In theory you can do both of these things in the span of an hour if you go first thing in the morning, but not every bank employee knows how to open an account with a passport and sometimes you'll have to visit 2 or 3 branches until you encounter someone know knows how to do it in their system.

Mobile payments are convenient once set up but they have made the world more fragmented with every superpower country implementing its own system.

[mortureb]

Anything with in person anything is an immediate no go. Come on guys, find a way around this. There absolutely has to be a way to do this over the internet.

[tyingq]

Finding a way to get a presence in the major airports would probably make it reasonable. Partnership with someone already there, like a currency exchange booth? Then, at some point, maybe there's enough volume to gain leverage with the bureaucrats to go all online.

[sudshekhar]

We did try pushing for an online account opening process. However, it's not allowed under existing India regulations.

We plan to scale with doorstep verification services in the meantime.