Wirecard takes boon from POS to online with prepaid
Prepaid cards have long been a bridge to the point-of-sale for mobile wallets, but Wirecard is using prepaid as a bridge to online payments for its boon. mobile app, which already can be used to make payments at the POS. The payments provider, which has had a busy fourth quarter, announced that boon. app users will be able to make mobile online purchases with the virtual prepaid boon. Mastercard. Wirecard also said it will add features, including P2P payments and microcredit, though no timetable was given.
The Android-based boon. is available in six countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. The online shopping feature currently is available in Spain, Ireland and Germany; however, the company plans to roll out the feature to the remaining countries, according to a Wirecard spokesperson. boon. mobile payment service also is available in the U.K. as part of Apple Pay’s app, but the mobile online shopping capability is for Android devices at the moment.
The mobile online payments service comes with a security feature, enabling users to open and close the app’s online payment function. When the payment function is launched, the app is immediately ready for use online, according to the company. The prepaid Mastercard can be loaded using a credit card or bank transfer.
“Our intention is to continually expand boon. by integrating innovative features,” said Georg von Waldenfels, Wirecard executive vice president, consumer solutions. “The possibility of now making online purchases via the boon app offers users a unique multichannel payment experience.”
Wirecard last week announced its partnership with VocaLink, a transaction processor recently acquired by Mastercard, to support the Pay by Bank app mobile payments initiative. Wirecard will incorporate the Pay by Bank app into its U.K. online merchant acquiring alternative payment options. Also this quarter, Wirecard launched a virtual Visa prepaid card in the Netherlands, a parent-supervised, prepaid mobile payment service with Orange and a prepaid card for European truckers.
