If you’ve been following the news regarding contactless mobile payments through NFC, you might have seen that Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have been working with some of the major banks to bring SIM-based contactless mobile payments to Australian customers, as well as some of the major banks trialing their own NFC payment systems. Well later this year FlashiZ will be launching a contactless payment service here in Australia, that will allow customers to wirelessly pay for products with QR codes as well as NFC. FlashiZ which is operated out of Luxembourg is currently being supported by more than 500 merchants through 1500 stores, public partners and commercial brands across the country.
So why bring another contactless payment service to australia? Well according to Fredrik Orrenius the COO for the Asia-Pacific, there is a large market for contactless payment services here in Australia.
Smartphone penetration is big in Australia and there is a high level of contactless cards being used; NFC technology can be seen all over the place so it is a good opportunity for our NFC solution to be successful.
How easy is it to pay with FlashiZ? Well FlashiZ is designed to be a fairly straightforward two-step process, regardless whether you are paying for goods, redeeming loyalty points or transferring funds to family/friends. First you scan the QR code with the FlashiZ application or tap your phone with the NFC reader, then you will be prompted to approve the purchase or transfer.
While the news is obviously the NFC based system of payments, there is not a huge amount of information on the NFC side of things on their website, which seems to concentrate on the QR Code side of payments; the same can be said for their App FLASHiZ which is available in Google Play.
How FLASHiZ intends to get around the issue of access to the secure element in Android phones – a problem that has led to the major Australian banks investigating SIM based NFC payment sysems – has not been addressed and we await further developments with interest. FlashiZ will be launching here in Australia later this year, so we will hear more about their solution then.
What do you think of FlashiZ? Will you be trying it out when it arrives?
I like to go wee wee and poo poo in the bath tub, Adam, does this make me a fish, if so, when will i develop fins and scales so I can do out to sea to swim in my own poo poo and wee wee? 😀
Adam – thanks for the mention in your blog. We have the secure element covered by virtue of the way we operate. We’ll drop you a line when the pilot kicks off.
All the best.
Paul Stokes, FLASHiZ APAC
i hate carrying wallet around its bulky and annoy be so much easier if we can use NFC on our phone to do all the payment
Take my money!!!! Or rather – provide me with a way to pay for stuff via NFC!!!