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Use Your Mobile Phone As Credit Card!

Techtree News Staff, Jul 01, 2009 1227 hrs IST

Citi Bank brings Tap and Pay in India

Citi brings next-generation of contactless credit card payments based on Near Field Communications (NFC) technology to India.

Citi Tap and Pay pilot service is being run in Bengaluru and is world's largest and most comprehensive pilots ever undertaken. Citi has established a fully secure, scalable and interoperable mobile payments ecosystem in Bengaluru in collaboration with Nokia, Vodafone, MasterCard and ViVOtech.

The technology will allow customers to tap their mobile phone on a contactless reader at the point of sale to pay for purchases, eliminating the need for the traditional swiping of credit cards. The service also does away with the need for customers to send SMS or incur mobile data charges to make these payments.

Citi Tap and Pay customers will have to use the new NFC-capable Nokia N 6212 classic phone, which they can purchase at designated Nokia stores, pre-loaded with the Citi Tap and Pay application enabled with MasterCard's PayPassTM contactless payments technology. They will then be able to securely execute an Over-The-Air (OTA) download of their Citibank MasterCard Credit card onto their mobile phone. Once personalized, their credit card on the phone is ready.

Customers can use the phones to make Tap and Pay transactions at locations displaying the Citi Tap and Pay and MasterCard PayPassTM acceptance marks. Citi Tap and Pay transactions claim to be absolutely secure, and require a PIN validation that ensures complete peace of mind. In addition to the built-in security features, the contactless payment transactions will be automatically charged to a customer's Citibank MasterCard card account through the same secure payment network that processes traditional credit card transactions.

Early adopters of this technology will enjoy promotional offers such as discounts at popular merchant establishments, which cover a wide range of categories including department stores, food courts at shopping malls and office buildings, restaurants and fast food chains, bookstores and multiplexes.