Paytm has introduced one more facility to its customers for making payments at merchant establishments easier. The company has come up with the ‘Paytm Tap Card’, a physical card which is synchronized with your Paytm wallet and will work like any debit/credit card. This is the digital payments major’s first offline payment solution
According to a report in Financial Express, this new launch is Paytm’s bid to reach non-internet customers and enable them to make digital payments.
Paytm has roped in a Chennai based company YELDI Softcom for operating this using the Near Field Communications or NFC technology and the Paytm point of sale (PoS) machines supplied by Paytm will be used by the merchant establishments to accept the payment by the tap of the card.
The Paytm customer has to pay Rs 100 for the card. This facility is being introduced for only the Chennai customers of Paytm to start with. The Chennai company specializes in NFC technology and will help Paytm with the backend operations rolling out this facility. Initially, the feature is being tested out in focused locations like events and large company canteens. A larger nation-wide launch may be some time away.
“There are a large number of people who at times do not have access to the Internet or they have a limited daily budget so they shy away from using online payments. For them, we offer the “Paytm Tap Card” to enable seamless offline payments. For ensuring a wider acceptance, we are also reaching out to the merchants and are actively enabling them with NFC PoS terminals to accept payments without Tap Card,” FE quotes Paytm COO Kiran Vasireddy as saying.
The way this Paytm Tap Card works is the same QR code scanning on the add-value machines at the payment points. The QR code would be integrated in the Tap Card and by just tapping on the machine the code will be read and the amount debited/credited instantly and the entire process may take less than a second. One can just leave the phone at home and carry the card alone.