Android Pay Launches on BNZ
Android Pay launched last week on BNZ and is the first bank to be supported by Android Pay in New Zealand. From now on, BNZ customers with a Flex Debit Visa card will be able to use Android Pay on their NFC-enabled smartphone to pay for items at supported contactless card merchants.
Android Pay is the ability for you to store supported credit/debit cards and loyalty cards on your phone so you don’t have to bring them with you in your wallet. While Android Pay has been out in New Zealand for a while now, there weren’t any compatible cards able to be loaded in, until now. BNZ has been putting the emphasis on them being the first bank in New Zealand to support Android Pay, with no timeframe on when they’d start supporting Apple Pay – Apple’s solution to mobile payments. ANZ have already been offering Apple Pay to its customers since two months ago.
A few other banks such as ASB and ANZ have already unveiled their own mobile wallets – Virtual and goMoney, respectively. These mobile payment systems are very similar to Android Pay, with the fact that they both use NFC to pay for items at a contactless terminal. At the moment, there aren’t any notable differences between the three banks’ different mobile payment systems, but if Android Pay does take off and gets more features and support from loyalty brands and other banks, then it is most likely to come out on top. This is because the one wallet (Android Pay) will be able to hold many cards, as opposed to having many virtual wallets on your phone. It sounds more convenient doesn’t it?
For smartphones to support all these mobile wallet systems, the Android phone must be running at least Android 4.4 and have an NFC-enabled phone with Host Card Emulation (HCE) support.
For BNZ customers to be able to start using Android Pay on their supported smartphones, they also have to install the Android Pay app on their phone and add their Visa Flexi Debit card by taking a photo of it. They also need to have the BNZ mobile app loaded on their phone to verify their details.
Android Pay can also be used overseas, as well as being able to make purchases in Android Pay enabled apps or online.
BNZ have always been a bank in New Zealand that isn’t afraid to trial new, worldwide systems and are mostly always on to it first thing. Remember the Semble mobile wallet?
For more information on BNZ’s Android Pay offering please visit: https://www.bnz.co.nz/personal-banking/everyday-banking/everyday-cards/android-pay
For more information on Android Pay please visit: https://www.android.com/pay/
