How to carry out mobile banking

Heard about mobile banking? "Yes," pat comes the reply from Mumbai-based Supriya Pandit.

She was issued a Mobile Money Identifier by her bank, two months back. But the 30-year old graphic designer doesn't know how to use it.

MMID is a seven-digit number issued by your bank for transactions through mobile banking.

There will be different MMIDs for different savings accounts but all these can be linked to one mobile number.

Axis Bank, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, recently launched Interbank Mobile Payment Service or mobile banking. "The idea is to enable quick transfer of funds through mobile phones," a senior official at State Bank of India said.

While mobile banking is available free of cost for the consumer, a transaction cost (of 10 paise) for availing IMPS is levied by National Payments Corporation on the bank from which the money is transferred.

You can transfer money across banks, provided the beneficiary bank is registered for mobile banking.

As per the Reserve Bank of India norms, an individual can transfer up to Rs. 50,000 per day but you can receive an unlimited amount.

Transfer of funds can be done by anyone who has an MMID but he needs to be a registered net banking user.

Net banking users automatically get registered for mobile banking.

Apart from fund transfer, mobile banking can also be used for purchase of goods and services, making bill payments, investments in mutual funds or creating fixed deposits.

Here's how to go about m-banking. (This is the process for Kotak Mahindra Bank, the process may differ slightly for other banks)

Step 1: If you are registered for net-banking, download the mobile banking application form from the bank's website.

Or, send an SMS to the customer care service and get the link for the mobile application.

Step 2: When you run the application, you will need your net banking username and password to log in.

On logging in, you will get the activation number or the number, to activate your account.

Step 3: The application gives the option of banking, investment and change password.

Step 4: Under the banking head you can also pay bills, request for cheque books and report loss of debit cards. Under the investment head you can buy and redeem investments in mutual fund schemes.