India Post, the country’s state-owned postal service, has begun enabling customers to conduct and pay for postal services online, a spokesperson for the agency tells PaymentsSource.
Launched March 10 by the Communications and Information Technology Ministry in collaboration with the Department of Post, the “e-post office” represents a modernization of the 247-year-old postal service.
“Using the portal, customers will be able to transact various postal services online using either a debit card or credit card,” the spokesperson says, adding the service accepts payments from both Visa- and MasterCard-branded cards.
The service also enables users to send electronic money orders and instant money orders to post offices across India using their debit cards, he adds. An electronic money order is disbursed within 24 hours, while the more expensive instant money order is disbursed within 1 minute of the transaction being authorized.
Senders pay from 150 rupees (US$3.30 or 2.4 euros) to 330 rupees for instant money orders ranging from 1,000 rupees to 50,000 rupees, according to the website. The fee for electronic money orders will range from 1 rupee to 250 rupees for transfers ranging from 1 rupee to 5,00 rupees, the site reveals.
Other services offered by the portal include philatelic stamp sales, postal information, shipment tracking, PIN-code searches and feedback registering.
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