Optus announced their contactless payment system in November last year, and they recently even announced a new watch you can use with the service, but it takes time to motivate people to try a new service and to that end Optus wants to give you $15 credit just to try it out.
To start with Cash by Optus is a pretty secure sort of system, it uses an NFC enabled SIM card to initiate and complete the transaction paired with the Cash by Optus app. The underlying system is powered by Heritage Bank and is at its core a virtual Visa payWave debit card, which you load up with credit prior to going shopping, then it’s just tap & pay all day.
The offer for $15 credit has some caveats, you have to be on a monthly mobile plan with Optus and have a compatible Android mobile phone – it’s essentially just a requirement for Android 4.0 on your phone, and you have to order an NFC enabled SIM card.
The promo runs from the first of March, until the 30th of August, but is only open to the first 10,000 customers who sign up – so get in fast.
For more information on the promotion, head on over to the Cash by Optus website and read all about it – or, if you’re ready to rock sign up for an NFC enabled SIM card to try it out.
By “NFC enabled SIM card” you mean a SIM with a secure element, utilising the phone’s inbuilt NFC chip?
Optus should concentrate on providing better 4G coverage and HD voice capability… Phone payments are not extremely important right now. Rant over, sorry.
Payments make money!! Retailers get charged upto 3% for payment paid by credit cards. So for every $100 you put onto your ‘optus nfc payment sim’ Optus will see $2-3 of that! Easy money. No towers to build etc
Looks like the Nexus 5 isn’t supported, boo!
I use this (I think it was $5 free credit when I signed up) because I couldn’t get any of the other phone payment methods to work properly. It works well, but my issue is when it doesn’t work. With other options (if they work), you have a physical card that you can use to pay if needed (assuming that you have the card with you at the time). With this, you don’t. It’s pay by tap, or don’t pay using that account – so essentially not being able to use the money that you’ve out onto the account. You… Read more »