Westpac has today upped the ante on mobile contactless payments, taking the wraps off a solution which will allow users of compatible Android handsets to use all their Westpac debit and credit cards via a simple tap of their mobile phone on contactless payment terminals.
Having concluded an internal trial, Westpac will release their updated mobile banking application which allows Westpac customers to pair their Westpac-issused debit and credit cards with the mobile application, and using the handset’s NFC hardware, make payments at any contactless terminal. This is in contrast to the previous solutions which banks have experimented with in Australia, including NFC stickers, add-on cases and specialised SIM cards, and is certainly much more user friendly and easily accessible.
Westpac’s rollout will begin early in 2014, and will be available to all new and existing customers via the Westpac mobile banking app. This app will allow customers to check their transaction history and account balance, and make payments, all from within the one application. As you can see from the images above, supplied, the process looks pretty simple.
We’re certainly excited by this development in the mobile payments space, and look forward to other banks following this lead.
Yeah Westpac, well done.. you have a bit too quiet since announcing your NFC trial a year ago.
Westpac has been a bit bullish saying that they won’t be doing any other “NFC” esq systems (read stickers) which i take to mean that they will be supporting a larger OEM base.
What a day in this space it was… laughed when i saw some other articles indicating Westpac thought they would be the first to launch an NFC payment system… clearly they haven’t been keeping a close eye on commbank.
Bring it on..!! Note 3 compatibility please.!
is this free? CBA has tap to pay for Galaxy S4 but its only free for one year and then there’s a $3 annual fee… kinda sucks.
No mention of fees in the press release.. Guess that’s TBA..
Any info on supported handsets?
Yeah, this is the most important part. I hope it’s not just limited to Samsung.
There wasn’t any hint in the press release on which devices were supported.
hopefully the nexus 5
Source?
Westpac’s media release.
Come on Commbank… we’ll only wait so long. I changed from ANZ because it took them 3 years after releasing the iOS app, to develop an Android equivalent.
CommBank is releasing NFC payments for Galaxy S 4 from today. We’ve just posted on this now 🙂
Good old Ausdroid! Always delivering breaking news, thanks.
So what’s the situation now? CommBank needs a tag but is up and running, Westpac will be a go next year with just NFC, ANZ is still working on it?
Time to move to Westpac if it works 100% on the Nexus 5.
I’m a happy bankwest customer… but I’m getting very very tempted to switch…
Don’t do it mate – bankwest is awesome. Only problem is the waiting between Commbank introducing something new and it finally trickling down to bankwest.
True.. I get such great rates and practically no fees.. bit silly to give that up just for NFC…
^^ – sounds like a fanboi to me..
Your probably in love with everything Google and Tom Hanks too?
I’m in the same situation as you describe, Adam. I bank with St George, which was swallowed by Westpac a few years back. No idea when, or if, Westpac will do the trickle down to the banks it owns.
Yeah it’s a small disadvantage to the great deals the smaller banks offer. I was worried when Bankwest got swallowed by Commbank they’d stop being great, but they haven’t. Same with St George I think.