As demonetization continues, Snapdeal announced that it will allow users to get cash through a POS machine which will be delivered to their doorstep. The company added that it will be using the cash it gets from the cash on delivery operations for the same.

At the time of cash delivery, the consumers will need to swipe their ATM  or debit card on the POS machines, which Snapdeal’s courier partners will carry for all such deliveries. Once transaction is successful, the courier will hand over Rs 2000 in cash.The service is already live in Gurgaon and Bangalore and will be extended to other major cities in the coming days, with the operative details to be updated as per user feedback and availability of currency notes.

Note that Snapdeal will be charging a “nominal fee” of Rs 1 as a convenience charge which will need to be paid through FreeCharge wallet or through debit card at the time of booking the order. The company seems to be toeing the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines on cash at POS which states that customers may be levied a charge which will not exceed 1% of the transaction amount.

However, the RBI makes it explicitly clear that customer will be allowed to avail  cash at POS regardless of whether they make a purchase at a store. Customers need not order anything on Snapdeal.

Such cash withdrawal facility may be provided by banks subject to following conditions:

The facility is available irrespective of whether the card holder makes a purchase or not. In case the facility is availed along with the purchase of merchandise, the receipt generated shall separately indicate the amount of cash withdrawn.

Following the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, many large retail stores in India, most notably Future Group’s stores, have started to offer cash at POS where customers can swipe their cards to get cash (subject to RBI’s current limits).

YES Bank has also partnered with Ola  to deploy cash at POS in 10 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Jaipur. But in this case, the cabs would be deployed across 30 YES Bank locations in these 10 cities.  Bank officials or the driver will be present on the spot to disperse the debited amount to the user.

Grocery delivery startup Grofers announced that it is partnering with YES Bank where it would allow customers to request for a POS machine on delivery to withdraw cash. However, it is contingent on a customer ordering from the service and entering a code to get cash at POS.