In Russia, fintech and banking were still far from ideal, this is evidenced by, that people still use cash. And the departure of Visa and Mastercard from Russia pushed our fintech back decades.
And remember, how else in 2015 year there were no payments from the phone? And GooglePay/ApplePay came to Russia only in 2017-2018 years, and carrying a plastic card with you was quite a common thing.
Comfort
Amenities have a property – you get used to them very quickly.. And this is how Apple Pay and Google Pay for a couple of years made everyone forget about it, what can you carry a plastic card with you, rather, a whole wallet of plastic cards. Payment terminals used to be somewhere behind the counter at the sellers, but with the advent of pay pass / visa paywave terminals crawled out and you yourself could apply a card for payment.
Therefore, with the departure of these most convenient services, comfort has decreased significantly.. And what to do – getting used to carrying a thousand cards around with you again?
What's on Android?
It turns out, MirPay has existed for a long time and allowed you to link MIR cards to the service for paying for purchases by phone. Well, Samsung has Samsung Pay., which also supports MIR cards. Therefore, Android users have not lost much in comfort.. And even on Huawei phones, you can add a UnionPay card and pay as before, even abroad (but it doesn't work well everywhere.).
Solution from Apple fans
surprisingly, but many iPhone users simply put a bank card under the case.
Solution from IT corporations
The solution from the tech giants of Russia is not much different in genius from the decision of the users of apple products themselves, but they decided to add some elegance to it, that's why they invented a bank card without a chip in sticker format. It can be pasted on the back of any phone, even if it doesn't have NFC. For iPhone, it is recommended to stick on the bottom panel, so as not to interfere with the operation of the original NFC chip. You can also just throw it under the cover, because the payment sticker is much smaller than a bank card, and also it can have a beautiful picture.
More advanced solution from MTS
MTS – one of the largest mobile operators in Russia, as well as part-time also a bank and an Internet provider, decided to release the so-called MTS Pay Tag – proxy server, or, rather, card VPN – so it will be clearer. It is the same sticker., like Alfa Bank, Tinkoff or Sberbank, with only one difference – it allows you to pay with ANY card. And this is its main advantage..
MTS sticker will work with the application, which will soon appear in the AppStore, and later they promised to make an application for Android. In the application, it will be possible to attach cards of any banks to the sticker, maybe, it will also be possible to quickly unlock the sticker by opening the application, so that it only works when the phone is unlocked and after a while it is blocked again, providing security.
At the moment, the solution from MTS is the most interesting and technologically advanced, because it has a number of advantages in comparison with competitors, as well as huge development potential:
First of all, no monopoly. Since you can attach a card of any bank.
Secondly, cashbacks on different cards may be different. One higher percentage per restaurant, in a different – for purchases in pharmacies. In the future, it will be possible to configure different cards for different MCC codes, and get the maximum cashback from regular purchases.
Third, for online payments it will be possible to use the same cards and the same rules, as for offline purchases. But there is a lot of competition – Yandex Pay, Gazprom Pay, Tinkoff Pay. If the tool is easy to implement for developers, then he will appear in many places.
Fourth, it will be possible in the future to link Mastercard or Visa or Maestro cards, released in Russia. Especially if you have an old Visa credit card with a good cashback..
Fifth, if the service will be available to foreigners, they will be able to link their foreign cards to this service and use this accessory to pay for purchases while in Russia for tourism purposes. All payments will be handled by MTS under the hood, how and through what payments will be made – not a consumer problem, and such a large corporation as MTS is definitely able to solve this issue.
At sixth, with any legalization of cryptocurrency, if it suddenly happens, this accessory can be tied to a crypto wallet one of the first, and automatically sell cryptocurrency upon payment.
Seventh, MTS Pay Tag – this is a normal world map. You can also link it to Samsung Pay or MirPay on Android in the same way and use your potentially incompatible cards/accounts/cryptocurrency (if) just paying with this card MIR. The same goes for online shopping..
MTS Pay Tag – Breakthrough or no breakthrough?
MTS didn't really invent anything new. Take the UK for example – they have a long service Curve – proxy server for other maps. The meaning is simple – you come from USA/Europe or somewhere else, but you need a UK card to pay for some goods or services in the country. Open an account at a local bank – long and uncomfortable, in addition, need only for a while. But you can get a Curve card in a couple of days with delivery, until the card arrived. – use the virtual version via Apple Pay or Google Pay. By linking your American or European cards there, you can pay by UK card, in this case, payments will be made from linked cards, you will not have any additional account. You can also use this service to add support for Apple Pay or Google Pay for cards, which do not support these services. Take, for example, Kazakhstan and Bank Kaspi. If Kazakhstan will be located in the UK, then he will be able to link his Kaspi card to this service and pay in the UK with a Curve card, even if he forgot his Kaspi card at home in Kazakhstan.
Results, offtop
Banking and fintech in Russia are not in last place in terms of advancement, but not first. There are still no iban accounts in our banks, SEPA transfers, and for an interbank transfer across Russia, you need to specify a lot of details, instead of just iban, how could it be. Also a very big omission for Russia, that multicurrency cards are exotic here. Only Tsifra Bank can boast of such cards (former Kazakhstan Freedom Finance). Although in these conditions this multicurrency is useless, and currencies such as tenge or soms cannot be tied to the card. But functionality is good.. Also, not many banks allow you to link or relink different accounts to the card., here are some of those, who can: Alfa Bank, Tinkoff, BCS Bank. For other banks, the standard is to fix one card to one account, which is not always convenient, and especially not modern. Also the whole world banking is still terrible, since all these money transfers are essentially always done manually, where the human factor is involved, creating delays and the possibility of errors.
Visa and Mastercard remain the most versatile payment methods worldwide. Union pay, JCB, Discover, American Express – hardly anyone is familiar with these things all over the world, except for certain regions.
At the same time, universal evil, trying to get away from NFC payments, develops payment via QR code, slipping it everywhere, where only not laziness, be it Kaspi QR in Kazakhstan or SBP Pay in Russia. But let's hope, that evil cannot be defeated. And one day we will all return to the usual payment methods, to which you are already accustomed, and tablets with QR codes will be burned in a special oven, which will allow heating the whole winter season throughout Russia, and at least there will be some benefit from SBP Pay.
