Paybox NFC Tested at McDonald's
- In Austria, McDonald's and the supermarket chain Merkur are taking part in the pilot testing of a new contactless service designed by A1 and Paybox Bank (subsidiaries of Telekom Austria group): Paybox NFC. The dedicated terminal is set near by the traditional POS device to enable transmission of Paybox NFC account-related pieces of information –associated with the customer’s bank account. No sensitive data is stored on the mobile device.
- These tests only concern a small number of McDonald's and Merkur locations and should be carried through until the end of Q2-2012 with the help of 5,000 customers. According to A1, once these tests over, other stores might join in.
- The user must have downloaded the Paybox NFC app and have set up a link between his dedicated account and his bank account. To use this service he either opts for an NFC sticker or benefits from an NFC compatible Smartphone (A1 now proposes five compatible models). Once made, the transaction is confirmed by SMS. The amount is debited from his account a few days later. Payments have been limited to 25 euros (within overall daily limit of 50 euros).
Source: Telekom Austria Group press release
- At first, this solution may resemble PayPal InStore –tested in Sweden end 2011, the latter relied on the customer’s PayPal account (see December 2011 Insight). Nonetheless, PayPal’s solution relied on in place terminals and not on isolated dedicated tools.
- Unlike several other pilot tests, this new EU-based initiative does not comply with EMV and does not involve the international card schemes (Visa PayWave and MasterCard PayPass).