Demonetisation: Survive cashless next 48 hours with digital payments

With one stroke PM Narendra Modi made Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes invalid yesterday night. Whether it prevents the black money or not, surely it has created chaos and confusion among people who are scrambling for other denominations to carry out their day-to-day transactions like buying milk, commuting, recharging mobiles and paying bills etc. At this juncture, wallet and digital payments come handy and make your life less troublesome. 

Online grocery

Online grocery stores like BigBasket.com, Nature’s Basket offer thousands of products right from fresh fruits and vegetables, rice and dals, spices and seasonings to packaged products, beverages, and meat. For non-vegetarians, FreshToHome and Liscious will deliver poultry, fish, mutton and other meaty directly . Such services are available in all the metro and major cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi-Noida, Mysore, Madurai, Coimbatore, Vijayawada-Guntur, Kolkata, Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar, Nashik, Lucknow-Kanpur, Gurgaon, Vadodara, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Nagpur, Patna, Indore and Chandigarh. 

Food delivery

If you don't want to take all the trouble of buying groceries and cooking, food delivery apps like Zomato, Swiggy, and Runnr are there to get your finger licking food to your doorsteps. 

Transport and hotels

Even on an ordinary day, most of us have to haggle with auto drivers, bus conductors, rickshaw pullers to get the change. Now with the ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, ride-hailing apps like Uber, Ola, and Jugnoo which have their own wallet sevice can make your ride smoother. For those commuting from one state to another, you can use redBus to book bus tickets using wallet services like Paytm and Freecharge. Numerous airline tickets booking sites like MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Cleartrip, Yatra, and Expedia provide the option of hotel booking. Also, IRCTC allows users to book train tickets online. 

Paying bills

Paying bills of electricity, gas, phone, DTH and other services are already made easy by wallet services like Paytm, FreeCharge, MobiKwik, Citrus Pay, and Oxigen. Add to that, along with internet banking, many banks have their own wallet-like services like  HDFC Bank's PayZapp, Pocket by ICICI and SBI's Buddy are all there to help you. 

Home services

The ban on the Rs 500 and RS 1000 hits hard when it comes to dealing with laundry, cleaning, and ironing services because the digital platforms here are not robust. However, websites like Quikr, Housejoy, UrbanClap, Pick My Laundry, LaundryWala, can connect take care of daily chores as you can pay online.