Barclays has launched ‘Hello Money’, a service that claims to take consumer banking services to the next level of convenience. Customers can now carry their bank in their mobile, accessing banking services anytime/anywhere on the move.

Barclays customers can now perform account enquiries and financial transactions by dialling *598*1#. They can carry out banking transactions like fund transfers, bill payments, requests and other banking services without visiting a branch or ATMs. Upon dialling *598*1#, customers will be guided to the mobile-based menu where they will be able to choose from a number of options and, after they enter the correct Hello Money PIN, they can perform their required transaction on their handsets.

As per the press release, Barclays Hello Money operates on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), which is being used for the first time in India for banking services.

Samir Bhatia, MD, India and Indian Ocean, Barclays Global Retail & Commercial Banking (GRCB) said, “Barclays Hello Money is about anytime/anywhere access to Barclays for its customers. This service is unique as it has a vast potential with appeal across all segments, taking banking to the unbanked population of over 184 million people in the country. It is for the first time that banking services are available in such a convenient and cost effective manner, turning a GSM mobile handset into a bank for its user.”

The service is available on all GSM handsets on the network of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea in 40 cities across the country for a monthly cost of Rs 30.