Partnership between BancoPosta and Trenitalia
- Postemobile, the Italian post office MVNO has just signed an agreement with the railway company Trenitalia to enable BancoPosta account holders to reserve and pay for their train tickets using their mobile phone.
- BancoPosta account holders or Postepay prepaid card cardholders can register to link their SIM card (phone number) to their means of payment (bank account or card). They can later book their train ticket on Trenitalia’s mobile website. After they receive an SMS detailing the booking information, they enter a secret code to validate their payment. The corresponding amount (and a 0.12 euro commission) is debited from the related means of payment.
- For several years now the Italian post office bank has been developing pioneering means of payments; this new example is yet another illustration of this involvement.
- It recently developed several payment options related to the prepaid Postepay card; five different versions of this reloadable card are proposed enabling, for instance, card to card funds transfers, transferring funds abroad using MoneyGram, gift cards, mobile phone toping-up at the Italian post office ATMs or supporting the World Food Programme.
- This new partnership will enable Postemobile’s customers, including unbanked ones, to buy train tickets using their mobile phone through a simplified customer process.
- Also, this partnership might increase the use of mobile payment in Italy: BancoPosta gathered over 60% market share in prepaid solutions in 2011, with seven million Postepay cards in circulation.