Yesterday banks around Kuwait launched WAMD, a new and convenient way of sending and receiving money locally through Knet.
WAMD is the Arabic word for “Flash”, which I guess reffers to the speed of transferring money. The service basically allows you to quickly send and receive money using only a persons phone number.
Previously if you wanted to send a friend money, you’d either have to add them as a beneficiary or you would have to create a payment link. Now, they no longer need to do that. Instead, all you need to do is go to your mobile banking app and select to either to send or request money via WAMD, and then type in the amount, the persons phone number, and then click send. WAMD will handle everything else which includes sending the payment link and notifying both parties through SMS on the status.
To be able to use WAMD, both of you need to have previously registered for it. You can register to use WAMD through your banking app, it’s a simple process where you put your phone number and then the app sends you an OTP number to verify that this in fact is your phone number. Once you do that you can then use the service.
There are transfer limits. The minimum amount you can send per transaction is 1KD, the maximum is 1,000KD. You also have a daily limit of 3,000KD and a maximum monthly limit of 20,000KD.
This is a free service and requires you to have a Kuwait number and a Kuwait based bank account.
Knet haven’t updated their website yet with details on WAMD, so for now you need to head to their instagram page for info @knetkw
25 replies on “Banks Launch WAMD Payment Service – What is it?”
Is there an app for it like InstaPay?
No that I’m aware of but why would you need a separate app when you basically already have it installed, your bank app. Wamd connects to your bank account and uses your bank info so if they created a separate app it becomes a lot more complicated to set up and you’ll end up having two apps on your phone that do the same thing.
No that I’m aware of
NOT that I’m aware of
registered. thank you.
KNET* not Kent…
oops that was autocorrect
But what’s the difference between this and ‘link’ we use now? I mean thats the exact same steps to send a link. Go to your mobile banking app and request money via ‘link’, and then type in the amount, the persons phone number, and then click send (or even better you can forward the link using WhatsApp or Facebook messenger or even email, which doesn’t seem possible with WAMS). The banking app will handle everything else which includes sending the payment link and notifying both parties through SMS on the status. Even the limits are exactly the same as the ‘link’.
Well two things, first, it’s faster because you skip two steps.
The first step you skip is you don’t need to enter the name of the person you’re sending payment link to, when you enter their number in WAMD it pulls up the persons name automatically.
The second step you skip is the need to choose what way to send the person the link.
The other thing is, with the previous quick pay option, if you needed to send money to someone, that person should create and send you a link. Now you can send to them money without them having to request it, something not possible with older way. That’s also faster because it’s faster for me to initiate a transfer then it would be for example for my mum to create a link to send me.
I guess it’s different with different banks, but with ABK all I have to do is create a link for x amount. I don’t have to input any more details such as person’s name.
As for the second step, yes that could be convenient if you already wanted to send the link through sms. But many people use WhatsApp and prefer that.
That last thing about sending instead of only requesting is a real advantage. But could also lead to issues with people sending money to the wrong account (trust me I’ve done it no less than three times over the years when sending mobile credit from one phone number to another.)
One more thing, I just noticed in your screenshot that you have to choose the “Purpose of payment”. That’s an extra step that you don’t have to do with the ‘link’ (at least on ABK).
Thats a step I have to do for both sending payment links and wamd. Must be an NBK thing.
That’s a recent Central Bank mandate thing. ABK probably hasn’t gotten around to updating their app yet (maybe also explains why they haven’t launched Wamd yet)
Just to add on, though it does seem mandatory for nbk, Other can always be selected as the purpose of payment for the URL generation. A name does not have to be provided either. So, just the amount, purpose, and checkbox have to be selected.
btw regarding your WhatsApp vs SMS comment. More people have and use SMS than they do WhatsApp. WhatsApp you need to install, SMS exists already on your phone.
Banks also use SMS for OTP and transaction notifications already so it’s more natural to do payments through that as well.
That is true
Hope they have some limit on the API for the search otherwise would be pretty easy to iterate through and dump the whole database of names to phone numbers along with whatever info that API returns to the phone app. Zelle in the US only somewhat recently started showing the first/given name of whoever you were trying to send to but only once you were about to send not prior to making it difficult to check a bunch of numbers.
the difference is, when someone sends you a payment link it directs you to a knet payment page where you have to put in your bank details and pin etc. if someone sends you a wamd request the link automatically goes onto your banking app and debits from there without any extra steps. this is for nbk, not sure about other banks
I have multiple bank accounts with same mobile number and found out that wamd needs you to register with only one bank account at a time. It asks you if you would like to shift your wamd registration from the “other bank”(previous bank). Options cancel or continue. If cancel you do not register with second bank, if continue you unregister from previous bank…
yeah that makes sense since your phone number is connected to a bank account where the money will be deposited.
Is Gulf Bank going to launch this? I can see an option on my NBK app but not on my Gulf Bank app
Finally, Kuwait got on the bandwagon of instapayment. This has been already available in many countries and GPay is one! The bank identifies the registered cell phone number and credits payment directly to the receiver’s bank account. Kuwaiti banks are complicating the matter requiring one cell phone number to be associated with one bank account of the holder.
So its Zelle basically?
This is nice. I always hated the idea of creating links and sharing links. I guess this will be similar to the UPI payments that we have in India. Just punch in the phone number, and as long as that number is on the network, it will show the name and voila!.
They copied Zelle in the US. Its actually a good idea cause its fast & no fees like wire transfers
Does it works if I want to transfer money between my two different banks accounts and one mobile number?