Should you use a credit card or a wallet? I do think each one has its advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage of a wallet is you know that money is there and can be used – the upper limit is fixed. So if you want to give money to your children staying away from you, the wallet is a good idea. However for you to use the credit card maybe a good idea. However if you are going to do many small transactions – like Ola trips of Rs. 190, 84, 123 – you may not want your credit card statement to have so many entries. So you may transfer say Rs. 2000 to an ola money wallet. However if the amount that you spend on Ola money is big like outstation trips you may pay through your credit card.

Here is what Aparna Ramchandra – author –https://www.amazon.in/Why-My-Credit-Report-Screwed/dp/9387860590 has to say about the usage of Credit cards vs Using a wallet.

Credit card Vs eWallets:
In very simple words a credit card is a 45 day debt. If you repay the whole amount that is due after 45 days there is no interest on this debt. Anything less that the total due calls for interest on the remaining amount.
While, a digital wallet is a service wherein a customer can save his personal information like delivery shipping address, credit/debit card numbers, net banking data in a single place, which he can then use during his transactions when his chosen retailer accepts the digital wallet as a form of payment.
Credit card usage is on the rise steadily and in the last decade we saw lot more online
transactions happening. eWallets are a relatively new phenomenon in India which is gaining prominence especially among the millennial as they like to be called.
A wallet is convenient and makes life easy once you get used to it. There’s a reason so many digital wallets have been developed: customers love them, especially online shoppers on mobile devices. You don’t have to carry a credit card, don’t have to fear using OTP etc on unknown networks etc. You might be able to complete the transaction just using your fingerprint for eg. Also , no information is passed directly to the online store; instead, the digital wallet completes the transaction through its secure tokenization. A few quick taps and the transaction is complete. Same is true for few off line transactions too where the merchant let you use the wallet. Hence the headache of carrying cash is also ruled out. All you need is your smart phone which all of us are always having on us! A digital wallet is an answer for both online and offline
shopping to many.
Wallet can be loaded to the extent one wishes to, and can even be loaded just before a
transaction. Users claim it is more secure than a credit card, but I have my reservations. .
What none of the wallet users seem to see through is some of the excellent benefits a credit a card offers. There are smarter ways to use a credit card and let it earn a few brownies for you.

A. A wallet has no loyalty points or air miles!! which means you load the wallet, spend it and that’s The End. While a credit card earns you
1) loyalty points. If you are smart enough you can fill your petrol at petrol stations which have a tie up with your credit card and earn some money, not bad isnt it?
2) air miles: a regular user can almost buy an entire holiday on the air miles earned out of a credit card.
3) cash: one can ask the credit card company to return the points in cash and credit it to your account.
4) the biggest and the most important is a credit card lets you spend now and pay after 45 days. Which is just not the case in a wallet.

5) You build a credit history which will help you get a good credit score – and that in turn can (and does) reduce your cost of borrowing.
6) access to airport lounges, certain elite clubs, cash backs are a few more.

I am not trying to say don’t use a digital wallet or credit card is the solution for every situation. In some places where you may not feel secure using your credit card, the wallet could be useful. In fact you could load your wallet a few hours before you need to use it. In certain cases like UTS – the rail ticket booking app there may be no choice of how to use it. If you need to use the app, it has to be from a pre-loaded wallet. So make an intelligent choice.

It is my humble attempt to bring to your notice how you should be the master and not slave to financial products. Let the new products work for you, to your benefit. Read not just between the lines, but beyond and see how you can benefit further.
Ms Aparna Ramachandra
Founder Director
www.rectifycredit.com