Nets mobile wallet allows you to leave your cards at home

SINGAPORE — Making payment through Nets can now be done with a tap of the mobile phone or by scanning a QR code on a new mobile app, without the need for the physical ATM cards.

Electronic payments company Nets launched its mobile wallet, NetsPay, on Thursday (Oct 19), which allows users to “digitise” or store their Nets ATM bank cards in their mobile phones. It will be available for download from Friday (Oct 20) for Android and Apple iOS devices.

Users of near field communication-enabled phones can simply tap their phone on the Nets terminal to make payment, if they set NetsPay as their default payment app.

For all other phones and the iPhones that have enabled Apple Pay, users can open the NetsPay app and select “Scan Code” before scanning the Nets QR code to complete the payment. Apple Pay allows customers to use their Apple mobile devices to tap and pay via contactless payment terminals.

For transactions that are below S$100, users will not have to key their PIN number before making payment. For a start, DBS and POSB customers will be able to use NetsPay from Friday, provided that they are using Android Version 5 and iOS Version 9 and above operating systems.

The other five participating banks will provide details on NetsPay at a later date.

Mr Anthony Seow, DBS’ head of cards and unsecured loans, said there are some seven million DBS and POSB Nets-enabled cards in circulation now, the highest number in Singapore.

“The momentum in adoption of mobile contactless services among our customers continues to be strong. The user-friendliness and security of these mobile contactless platforms clearly encourages higher usage,” he said.

DBS has seen a 50 per cent increase in contactless transactions among its credit card users who adopted mobile contactless payments, while debit card users have tripled their contactless transactions, he said. Mobile contactless payment users also spend more — credit card users spent double of their typical contactless spends over the same period, while debit card users spend close to 170 per cent more, he added.