The benefits of mobile wallets and knowing the most appropriate one for you

We all have several cards that we carry on a daily basis. These cards range from several credit and debit cards, loyalty or gift cards, a driver’s license to membership cards for such places as the library or the sports club. If we are to store all these cards in our wallets, they would be too bulky, even though we were to put them in our backpacks, they would still be a load for us.

With all these cards to carry, we all long for that day when we will be able to hold our phone and be able to access all the cards you need for that specific day. Through a mobile app, mobile wallets are taking us a step closer to the realization of that aspiration. The mobile app can consolidate the credit, debit, loyalty and gift cards onto the phone.

However, these mobile wallets have become so many such that choosing the one that fits you well is now becoming a hurdle. One of the ways of determining the mobile wallet that suits your needs is by considering its functionality for different card types as discussed below.

Credit & Debit Cards

Primarily, your mobile wallet should store your debit and credit cards securely. Storing is not enough, but the wallet should allow you to pay with these cards using your cell phone. A good mobile wallet should enable you to store a variety of cards, such as branded cards, national and local bank cards as well as major brands cards.

Loyalty Cards

Almost every store, restaurant, boutique or supermarket you frequently visit will offer you a loyalty card. You obviously want to earn discounts and freebies from these places, but if they all give you a physical loyalty card, you will end up having a hefty stack of these cards. For this reason, you should choose a mobile wallet that allows you to store all your loyalty cards and enable you to track the points in every card.

Gift Cards

According to an article by Robert Teitelman and Lawrence C. Strauss, close to $1 billion in gift card went unredeemed in 2015. Gift cards go unredeemed because some are lost, others are forgotten while in others, unused balances left on the cards after a purchase goes to waste. You want a digital wallet that will help you spend every coin on the cards.

At Netclearance we offer the mBeaconPay, a turn-key mobile payment smart terminal and software solution which is a perfect match for all your mobile wallet need.

How Mobile Wallets Help Boost Customer Loyalty

Beyond Philosophy describes customer loyalty as "the result of the consistently positive emotional experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and perceived value of an experience, which includes the products or services.'

Customer loyalty is an essential part of a successful business. If it is handled correctly, business owners will maintain an audience that is irreplaceable. 

Mobile wallets, virtual systems that allow customers to pay with their phones, are one way that entrepreneurs are making that happen. 

Here are four ways that mobile wallets boost customer loyalty: 

1. Increased sales. By using mobile wallets, customers are more likely to return for more transactions and be loyal to a particular business. 

2. Unique identity. Mobile wallets allow businesses to separate themselves from competition. They give customers an inside look on what a business is all about. 

3. Lower costs. It is less expensive to handle transactions with the use of mobile wallets. By making your transaction history electronic, business owners can eliminate the middle man and focus on what really matters. 

4. Improved customer service. With the use of mobile wallets, business owners are able to establish an improved customer service. Customers are able to store coupons, discounts, and loyalty rewards. This will make customers feel better about their contribution to the company and the service that they will receive. 

Customer loyalty is the result of positive experience and satisfaction from a particular business. One way that business owners are making this happen is with the use of mobile wallets. Mobile wallets allow customers to pay and store transactions with their mobile devices. By doing this, entrepreneurs are able to establish increased sales, a unique identity, lower costs, and increased customer service. If you would like to learn more about mobile wallets, follow us. 

Banking's 'Uber Moment': Keeping Up in the Era of Fintech

Financial technology is proving to be a significant disrupter in the financial sector. Similar to how Uber completely transformed the taxi industry, financial startups will have a real impact on the banking industry in the next few years.

In fact, such effects have already begun to take place. The Financial Times estimates that around 100,000 banking jobs were cut in 2015, including those from HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and Credit Suisse.

Banks must now compete on technology in order to stay relevant. According to a 2015 survey by software firm Temenos, 27% of senior bankers reported tech companies as the greatest threat to their business.

As mobile phone Internet use is becoming increasingly popular, mobile wallets are quickly becoming more utilized by consumers. Banks looking for new revenue streams should strongly consider building their own mobile wallets in order to compete with technology like Apple Pay and Google Wallets.

Companies looking to build their own mobile wallets can do so using mBeaconPay, a new mobile payment device that enables banks to both acquire new merchants and offer payment-processing services without going through credit card networks or the walled  gardens of Apple or Google.

Using proprietary Smart Beacon Technology, mBeaconPay conveniently supports all wireless proximity technologies like BLE, NFC, QR, and Wi-Fi in a single unit and seamlessly integrates with all point of sale systems.

The mBeaconPay was recently nominated for Best Cash Innovation Award by PYMNTS.com.

Financial startups are quickly changing the banking landscape, and the industry must adapt in order to keep up with these new technological advances. For more information on how companies can build their own mobile wallets using mBeaconPay, contact us.

Financial Institutions Mobile Wallet Strategies Flailing at Best

Mobile-savvy customers around the world are just waiting for the right mobile wallet to show up. With a cell phone in the hand of virtually every account holder, now is the time for financial institutions to corner the market. Everyone wants immediate access to their financials, and as research from Javelin indicates, many people are no longer selecting their financial institution as first choice. PayPal and Visa have attracted consumer attention as well as won over customers from their primary financial institution. 

Deemed the Wallet Wars, it is not that customers wouldn't prefer to use a wallet created by their financial institution; relationships are key to securing and maintaining users of a particular mobile wallet. Now is the time for banks to designate specific attention to providing a mobile wallet their clients will use. 

At best, many banks are relying on these third parties (Apple, Google, Samsung, PayPal) to provide a mobile wallet solution; however, this may not be the best approach. According to one site, 

Issuers whose only mobile-payment aspirations are to integrate with third-party wallets are putting themselves in a highly precarious situation. As these wallets scale, bank customers will become increasingly entrenched and weighed down by the ecosystem pull commanded by the likes of Apple and Google. Worse, they will begin to associate commerce-enablement not with the bank that issued their card, but with the technology vendor whose brand wraps the application they use.

Branding is essential in all corporate endeavors. Financial institutions must remain astute in their approach to mobile wallets as our society is entrenched in cashless transactions. Instead of allowing third parties to profit from current customers, it is time for financial institutions to use their existing customer relationships and create a mobile wallet with their name on it.

Netclearance offers products, a plan, and the technology that is synonymous with the mobile wallet. As consumers choose to pay daily using their cell phones at various vendors, it is time for financial institutions to extend their arm of influence and corner this market. Facilitated by mBeaconPay technology, Netclearance eliminates the middle man so common in these transactions and offers a streamlined system between only the customer, the merchant, and the bank. 

Now is the time to put your name in the palm of every customer's hand. 

Cryptocurrencies Spreading in Canadian Retail

Cryptocurrencies in retail are becoming more practical as a payment form with new businesses accepting and now even selling bitcoin every year. 

Canadian bitcoin users now have an additional 6,000 retail locations to purchase their favorite cryptocurrency, according to CryptoCoinNews.

As bitcoin transactions continue to expand, more and more consumers are looking for easy and practical ways to purchase bitcoins. 

Thanks to bitcoin ATM maker BitAccess, Canadian consumers have access to a new bitcoin purchasing method. 

BitAccess is based in Ottawa, and this week they detailed how customers will be able to purchase bitcoin at 6,000 retail locations. They'll do so with a ‘Flexipin’ voucher. The vouchers can be purchased with cash or a payment card, and they'll work like a gift card. 

BitAccess said Flexipin is a "prepaid voucher that lets you top-up your accounts to make secure, hassle-free online payments. Because Flexepin are prepaid, the risk of having your identity and banking information exposed online is eliminated."

After a customer buys the Flexipin voucher from a cashier, they'll be given a receipt. Sixty seconds later, that receipt can be redeemed for the cash equivalent of the cryptocurrency that was purchased. 

Flexipin vouchers will be sold in denominations of $10, $30, $50, $100 and $250.

BraveNewCoin reported that although purchases can be made anonymously, customers will need to have a BitAccess web account in order to redeem their coins. 

BitAccess has also implemented a purchase cap of $250 worth of the cryptocurrency each day. 

To redeem bitcoins after purchase, customers just need to log into their BitAccess account and type the code printed on their Flexipen voucher they received from their cashier. 

More retailers are beginning to accept bitcoin payments, and if your business is seeking a way to accept bitcoins, look no further than Netclearance's own mBeaconPay technology. The mBeaconPay platform integrates with cash registers, enabling them to process bitcoin transactions.

If you're interested in learning more about our mBeaconPay technology, please contact us.

Nordic Countries Becoming Cashless Societies?

Denmark and Sweden are on the way to becoming Cashless Societies in coming years. In another post this blog addressed recent news in Denmark, where they are considering legislation that would allow select benefits to refuse cash payments.

Now, Sweden has taken another step to make cash less of a necessity and more of a burden. Their banks are making it harder for Swedes to hold onto cash. 

The Sverige Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, recently decided to keep its benchmark interest rate at -0.35%. The banks they lend to actually lose out by holding onto the money. Retail banks have not yet imposed negative interest rates, but they might. The cost of that negative interest lending has to be soaked up or passed on to businesses and individuals. 

Swedish retail banks are encouraging people to move away from cash in other ways. Swedish banks have also started to remove cash ATMs in rural areas. If people aren't using much cash, they must not need the ATMs. This move roughly corresponds with a drop in the amount of cash in circulation. 

A Business Insider article reports that the value of paper Kronor in circulation has dropped, from about 100 billion in 2009 to around 80 billion in 2014.

In a relatively cash-free Sweden citizens will have to either spend money or let the bank take it, in the form of negative interest. They'll likely spend their money, electronically, spurring economic growth. 

In short, Sweden is using less and less cash in an environment. Negative interest rates are a reality for banks and a real possibility for businesses and individuals.

Revolutionizing Proximity Payments Technology

Over the past few decades, we have seen society's preferred mode of payment shift from physical currency to debit cards and credit cards. As time goes on, other forms of payment have emerged, and are poised to take over as our new preferred method of payment. Proximity payments technology is but one of these technologies, and consists of the use of smartphones in order to transfer funds between businesses and customers in exchange for products and services, transcending industries and finding more nuanced uses every day. According to eMarketer.com, proximity payments in the United States handled $8.7 billion in transactions for the year 2015. For 2016, experts expect this number to climb as high as $27 billion. If this trend continues, this means that this technology will be the main method of financial transaction by 2019.

How Does Proximity Payment Work?

Proximity payment technology consists of an exchange between a smartphone and another compatible device via Bluetooth technology, where the smartphone acts similarly to a debit or credit card, connected to a customer's bank account. Of course, this means that both devices in a proximity payment exchange need to have Bluetooth capabilities, but as time goes on, more and more devices are becoming Bluetooth compatible.

Netclearance vs. Other Proximity Payment Technologies

As proximity payment technologies have become more popular, many companies have tried to jump on this trend, each with varying degrees of success. Examples include Android Pay, ApplePay, and Samsung Pay. While each of these technologies are innovative, they all have their own issues that impede ease of access, including:

• Usable only on phones they manufacture (walled garden effect)
• Credit card based systems
• User data shared with Google and other sites
• No options for customization
• Added fees

With our mBeaconPay technology at Netclearance, we want to help our users break away from these constricting qualifications, offering freedom through features such as:

• Phone agnostic (supports all smartphones regardless of make and model)
• App-based
• User data shared only with relevant banks and retailers
• No or low transaction fees
• Customizable (white-label)

With such a stark contrast, it's clear why mBeaconPay available here at Netclearance is more effective than its competitors. Contact us today to find out more!

Banks' Uber Moment Leads Financial Institutions to New Financial Technology

A look back at history reveals numerous instances in which technology disrupts an industry. A century ago, the automobile displaced horses. A more modern example that also involves the automobile is Uber. Compared to traditional taxi cabs, Uber’s ride-hailing app offers consumers a way to get around a city that’s lower cost and more convenient to pay.

Cost and convenience are also driving changes in finance that some technology observers describe as banks' Uber moment. Technology is disrupting how people manage their money. Transactions that once required face to face interaction were replaced by online banking, where people managed their money via their computers. Now online banking is going mobile as smartphones and banking apps allow consumers to bank from wherever they happen to be.

This “Uberization” of finance is turning the banking sector on its head. A Financial Times analysis found that nearly 100,000 banking jobs were cut in 2015, which is roughly equivalent to 10 percent of the combined staff of the top 11 European and U.S. banks. Former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins last year warned that up to half of banking jobs could be replaced by apps and algorithms over the next decade, according to Business Insider. Financial technology enables consumers to make transactions smarter, cheaper, and often faster, he explained. Just as Uber is squeezing the taxi industry, financial technology will squeeze bank operations, leading to financial industry layoffs.

Banks will need to look ahead if they want to be part of the financial industry change, rather than becoming a victim of it. Financial institutions will need to embrace technology as both a standard way of conducting business and as a way to bring in new sources of revenue. Mobile wallets might be able to offer the solutions that banks need.

Netclearance Systems offers a solution called mBeaconPay, a mobile payment platform that enables banks to acquire new merchants and to offer payment processing services. The technology allows banks to perform these actions without any intervention from the credit card networks and to collect valuable consumer purchase data. Technology is changing the industry – for the better, we believe. Contact us to learn how the latest in financial technology can help you.

Nominated in the Best Cash Innovation category by PYMNTS.COM

Disintermediation of Payments Reduces Fraud and Error

For the longest time, the payment system between you, your credit card, the store or merchant and the banks has been incredibly complex and prone to error or fraud.  Due to this system, companies and consumers across the country have paid more than their fair share for these errors.  The multi-party payment system is just about to change.

Fortunately, there is a new system for Disintermediation of Payments via Netclearance Systems. In this system, payment is direct and only requires three parties, so there is much less chance for fraud or error.  Under the old (current) system, payment flows from the buyer the credit card network (Visa or Mastercard), to their issuing bank , then to the merchant's bank, to the payment processor and finally to the merchant themselves.  This complicated process is fraught with risk and riddle with middle-men fees.  

Under the new Netclearance mBeaconPay solution, the only parties involved are the Consumer, the Merchant and the Bank - a three-party model.  Unlike other credit card based mobile payments systems such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay or PayPal, Netclearance has created an app-based mobile payment solution that removes the traditional payment processor thru a direct connection between the consumer, the merchant and the bank.  As long as the consumer downloads the free app on to their smart phone, they can simply place it over the merchant's Netclearance payment system and instantly transfer cash from their account to the merchant's account.  No need to wait for credit card confirmation or sign a piece of paper confirming the transaction.  The new system removes several of the fees normally levied in a traditional card payment  model.

In fact, the system has already taken off in the Nordic countries with over 20,000 locations enabled, such as McDonald's, Starbucks, Danish Supermarket and others are getting in on the action.

For more information please contact us.  We will provide a detailed overview of the new payment system and how it can help you reduce fraud and increase profits.