Want to do mobile banking without internet? Use USSD to pay offline

Digital transactions have become a way of life nowadays for payments or transferring funds. In fact, a lot of shopkeepers, including the one's selling items on carts, have started using digital payments for convenience. But what if you have no access to internet in your area and you have a financial emergency? Well, fret not. You can make use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) to do banking from your phone, without using internet .

What is USSD and how can it be used

USSD technology is the solution for doing digital payments without internet connectivity. The method though can only be used for small value transactions up to ₹5,000, as per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines.

The National Unified USSD Platform, better known as NUUP, is a mobile banking service. It uses USSD to transmit information through GSM network channels.

It facilitates the financial communication through banks without using internet. You can use it for various features, including checking your account balance, generating mini statement, fund transfer via MMID (a code allotted by banks on mobile banking registration), IFSC code or Aadhaar number.

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Other services include generating OTPs, M-PIN, and VAS such as query service on Aadhaar mapper. NUUP also uses IMPS platform for fund transfer. Therefore, once the transaction is initiated, it cannot be stopped or cancelled.

According to National Payments Corporation of India, or NPCI, *99# service is currently offered by 41 leading banks and all GSM service providers and can be accessed in 13 different languages, including Hindi and English.

How to use USSD for transactions

To use USSD, one needs to register their mobile number for mobile banking first. Once this is done, you need to type in *99# (for English language) from your mobile phone. This USSD code is common across all telecom operators.

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What are the services available using USSD

You can use following services under USSD:

• Sending money

• Requesting money

• Checking balance

• Visiting My Profile

• Checking pending transaction

• Checking last 5 transactions

• Setting/ changing UPI PIN

For further information, you can visit NPCI's official website.