Sorry to hear of your experience, fast passenger! I have been skeptical of the Cheq offering and similar ones because of this business of in-person verification. Who wants to waste half a day or more out of a week's vacation in India sitting in some back office going over documentation - not to mention the 24-48 hour wait often required or implied.

That said, there is a new entrant in this area, "Mony" (havemony.com) - their operating model is similar to Cheq, however they claim the KYC can be done online, without an in-person visit to any office. If true, it could be a lot easier. (Of course, assuming problems such as the above don't crop up.) Has anyone tried them?

With all of these apps, I guess the other concern would be how easy it is to top up money in the prepaid account while on the go, and how easy it is to get any left-over money back when returning. As it's not easy to guess and load up just the right amount of money you may need for your trip at the start, especially if anything unspent is going to be lost to red tape and bureaucratic foot-dragging.