PRESS RELEASE
Pay contactless with ABN AMRO using ring, watch or bracelet
ABN AMRO first bank in the world to offer wearables enabling users to pay higher amounts at point-of-sale using PIN
ABN AMRO is launching contactless payment by wearable for all its retail customers. It is the first bank in the world to offer wearables enabling their users to pay higher amounts at a point-of-sale and using a PIN. Customers can buy their wearables and link them to their current accounts, thus facilitating contactless payments.
ABN AMRO’s website features products and links to the web-shops where clients can buy wearables that come with Mastercard-certified payment chips. Their wearable product will be delivered to their home and, once activated via Internet Banking, can be used for contactless payment immediately.
Paying by wearable is no different from contactless payment by card: just hold the wearable near the point-of sale and enter a PIN for purchases in excess of 25 euros. ABN AMRO observes a limit of 250 euros a day that clients can spend with their wearables plus PIN – the first bank in the world to support higher-amount payments for these types of wearable.
Innovative payment methods
In the past 12 months, 500 ABN AMRO clients have experimented with these wearables and their responses have been hugely favourable: no less than 80% of test users preferred wearables to a regular bank card.
“We continuously work on all kinds of innovative payment methods,” says ABN AMRO’s Yvonne Duits. “Last year, we embarked on a joint pilot with partners Mastercard and DigiSEq. The 500 clients involved thought very highly of this payment method, reporting how good it was not always to have to bring their debit cards when going out or taking part in sports. Just use your ring to pay the bill and then prompt your friends to repay you by sending them a Tikkie reminder. Very useful indeed!”
Where to purchase
Payment by wearable will only be made available to ABN AMRO’s retail clients. These wearables are being sold by companies that have placed Mastercard-certified chips in their products. Go to abnamro.nl/wearables for a list of wearables and links to web-shops where you can purchase them and link them to your accounts.
Paying with smart watches and trackers
Garmin smart watches and soon also Fitbit trackers work a little differently for payments: every 24 hours users are to select a PIN that they enter into their smart watch or tracker, and, if they want to make payment, they select the wallet function before holding their smart watch or tracker to the point-of-sale.
Types of wearables that support payment
Please note that only the brands below support wearables that can be linked to our clients’ current accounts, as these wearables meet Mastercard’s certification requirements for reliable and safe payments.
K Ring is watertight, is engineered from zirconia ceramic and comes in 14 colour combinations with black or white on the outside. K Ring never needs charging.
LAKS: LAKS offers a range of wearables that require no charging. Higher amounts are paid using debit card PIN. LAKS has watches, key rings and bracelets for men and women.
Olympic: Olympic, a PDA Group company, is the first Dutch brand to include payment chips in its watches. Its collection consists of a range of new watches with payment features, with 14 different colour combinations and types, for both men and women.
Garmin: Garmin Pay is integrated in ten of Garmin’s latest smart watches, with the Garmin Connect™ app adding the digital payment feature to the smart watch’s wallet.
Mondaine: Swiss-made watch brand Mondaine has watches with payment features for both men and women, based on the Swiss railway-station clock. PDA Group sells the Mondaine watches in the Netherlands.
Fitbit: Fitbit helps people to live healthier lives by tracking their daily activities, sleep patterns, food intake and weight. A number of Fitbit products come with Fitbit Pay, a function that should soon also be available in the Netherlands.