Santander U.K. Enables Friends to Pool their Funds with KiTTi (July 30, 2015)
Santander, a financial services provider in the U.K., has made it easy for up to 100 consumers at least 18 years old to pool their funds via an app available on iOS and Android. The group money management app, KiTTi, is the first virtual ‘cash kitty’ of its kind, according to Santander, and enables friends to create collective pots of money, monitor and manage transactions and pay using the KiTTi prepaid contactless MasterCard. Customers of any U.K. bank can download the app, set up a KiTTi, invite their friends and start sharing money. Along with Santander, the service was developed with Monitise and Kalixa.
After the app is downloaded, one person registers as the owner to set up a KiTTi and receives the prepaid MasterCard. Each KiTTi can be given a name and payment milestone up to £4,000 (US$6,242). The owner invites friends to join the KiTTi app via text message and the owner and friends, for a small fee, pay into the kitty by entering only once their debit card details. Using the KiTTi prepaid card, money can be taken out or used to pay for anything the group wants. Multiple KiTTi accounts are managed through one app and one KiTTi card, making it easier to manage than cash, and the KiTTi owner and friends see money going in and out.
The app was designed and developed with Monitise Create, the technology company’s design and innovation studio, and Kalixa’s integrated platform handles all KiTTi payment functions, including funds transfers and management, gateway and acquiring services, transaction processing, card tokenization and customer service, among other processes.
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