In a first, ICICI Bank customers can make transactions without cards

If you forget to carry your credit card or debit card and still feel compelled to pay for your favourite chicken biriyani, what would to do? Or if you are worried about losing your card and do not want to carry them, how do you pay at the point of sale? Private lender ICICI Bank has a solution for your problem. If you are an ICICI Bank customer, you can pay through your credit or debit card without having the card with yourself.

This payment will be done through ICICI Bank’s mobile app by using your smart phone. ICICI bank is the first bank to offer this solution, claimed the bank.

Besides ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank also offer this type of payment solution but not through the mobile app. So ICICI Bank is the first to offer contactless payment solutions through ‘iMobile Pay’ app.

What is the technology

This is based on Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. The payment service empowers customers to create digital versions of their physical debit and credit cards on the iMobile Pay app. Using the digital cards, customers can initiate electronic payment at merchant outlets from NFC-enabled smart phones by just waving their phone near a contactless POS device.

Almost all credit card and debit card of every bank are now enabled with this NFC technology. So, one can pay without inserting the card into the POS terminal.

SBI and Axis Bank also offer some wearables like watch, wristband, loop, key chains through which one can pay without having the physical card.

But contactless payment solution through mobile banking app is the first of its kind.

ICICI iMobile Pay

The service offers improved convenience to over 1.5 crore debit and credit card customers of the bank as they no longer need to carry their cards for payments at retail stores.

The facility of ‘Tap to Pay’ through iMobile Pay is now available on Visa cards. Soon it will be activated on Mastercard cards too.

As per RBI guidelines, customers can make payments up to Rs 5,000 per transaction just by tapping or waving the phone near the PoS device. For transactions above Rs 5,000, customers will have to enter the respective card PIN along with waving the phone near the POS device.

“We were first to introduce ‘Tap to Pay’ facility five years ago by digitising cards and offering secured contactless payment through our digital wallet app. Now we have extended this facility through our mobile app, iMobile Pay. This contactless mobile payment solution offers cashless payments to the Bank’s customers using just their smart phones, thereby eliminating the need to carry cash or debit and credit cards.” said Sudipta Roy, head-unsecured assets, ICICI Bank.

SBI Titan watch

SBI account holders can also avail this type of service through a simple watch, introduced by Titan. YONO app does not have this NFC enable technology as of now. The watch has an NFC chip embedded in them that processes the payment.

SBI account holders can tap their Titan Pay watch on contactless payment POS machine without the need of swiping or inserting their SBI debit card.

This SBI-Titan watches are available at all Titan showroom and selected SBI branches as well as online platform, i.e. SBI YONO.

Payments of up to Rs 2,000 can be made without entering a PIN. A secure certified NFC chip embedded in the watch strap enables all the functionalities of a standard contactless SBI debit card.

Axis wearables

Axis Bank, too, offers multiple smart pay wearables such as wristbands, loops, key chains to customers. The issuance fee is Rs 750 and it attracts an annual cost of Rs 500.

One can use this smart wearable for a purchase up to Rs 1 lakh. No PIN is needed for transaction up to Rs 5,000. For any transaction above Rs 5,000 users would need to authenticate payments using their PINs. These wearables enabled with NFC technology which plays the key role to process the payments.

Only up to five transactions in a day can be done without a PIN, even if they are below the Rs 5,000 limit. The limit for a single purchase limit is Rs 1 lakh. This wearables are available at all Axis bank branches across the country.