Vodafone has become one of the latest operators to launch a service that will allow you to pay with your mobile just by touching it via NFC or make a gesture with the smartphone.
Today the service to customers in Spain has been launched with a device that supports Android, and that will continue this deployment in Europe, arriving first in Germany in mid-December and the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy in the spring of next year. The Vodafone Wallet application can also integrate travel, loyalty and gift cards.
The first payment application available for Wallet is Vodafone SmartPass, developed in an agreement with Visa, which use the funds you have from the account from your bank to pay for the items.
For those customers who do not have a phone with NFC, Vodafone has said that you can apply an NFC tag on the back from your terminal to combine it with the SmartPass application.
What does it take to make Vodafone Wallet work?
- The first is own an NFC sim from Vodafone.
- Then a terminal that has NFC compatible with Vodafone Wallet. The smartphones that support this Vodafone paid feature are: HTC One, Sony Xperia Z, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy S3 mini.
- Download the free Vodafone Wallet app from Vodafone Updates.
- Then you will need to add a Visa Vodafone SmartPass card from the app. Other cards will be available from other entities in the following weeks.
If at the moment your bank card is not available in Vodafone Wallet, you can get the Vodafone SmartPass card, available as a prepaid card, and can be recharged with a transfer or credit or debit card. Vodafone has launched a promotion that includes 10 euros for free if you recharge before December 31 and if you are one of the first 5000.
If I don't have one of the supported terminals, what can I do?
If you do not have one of the aforementioned smartphones, even if it has NFC, you can request the Smartpass Label that will be sent home. For any questions you can contact Vodafone Spain, and they will answer any questions.
Safety is important
It can set the security level with a lock PIN, choosing the mode in which you want the cards to be (on / off) and that in any case, you will never be able to make any payment greater than € 20 without being authorized with the PIN.
Right now they exist more than 300.000 establishments with payment technology POS contactless called «Contactless», which you can distinguish with the NFC icon and a hand with a card. Since its use will be as simple as passing your smartphone through the Contactless POS of the store or establishment to make the payment automatically.
What is expected with Vodafone Wallet is power perform daily payment tasks with our smartphone such as having the transport pass, the gym card, the library card and even the house keys or the DNI.
In short, that your smartphone will become your own wallet with Vodafone Wallet. What will have to be seen is the acceptance that it will have by the general public.
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The problem with paying with this service is when you return an item since you can lose the availability of that money for a month. You also have to be pending for a month in case they do not pay you. I think that if the store has made the return by introducing the card, it should be immediate and not take up to 1 month.