Is your bank making the transition to digital payments easier for you?

Gone are the days that we have to wait for banks to open their doors to access banking services. Today, payment options exist that don’t even rely on banking details or branch codes when we have to pay someone or get paid – all that’s needed is a cellphone number.

The digital and mobile payments market is forecast to surpass credit card and cash payments as it continues its remarkable growth rate of 26.9% expected between 2020 and 2025. This growth rate has been accelerated by the expectations of the new-age banking client for faster, real-time banking, and by emerging technologies such as mobile devices, online interfaces and new network infrastructure.

In fact, digital payment methods are fast becoming part of the tools that banks employ to gain new clients, many of who grew up in a digital-first world. And, unlike past generations, this new-generation consumer will consider switching banking providers based on better digital and value-added services, adding to increased market competition. Digital payments are the future and making sure that clients experience these benefits, is a fundamental strategy that has to be adopted faster, especially due to the changing nature of how clients interact with services in the current environment where we are facing a global pandemic.

How are banks keeping up with the demand for digital payment options?

According to a report on payments in the digital age, the banking transaction systems benchmark demonstrates over 15 000 transactions a second at its peak, while the world’s largest mobile payment platform, Alipay, have touched more than 250 000 payment transactions in a second.

With the use of digital payments expected to increase to 1.3 billion people by 2023, it’s not only technology companies or platforms that are enabling digital payments through innovative solutions.

Banks like Discovery Bank, for example, is leading the way in contactless banking with no physical branches and an app that enables digital payments in minutes. Clients enjoy greater convenience and security when shopping with virtual cards, and can make payments to their contacts who are Discovery Vitality members through Discovery Pay using their cellphone number.

Making payments to stored contacts in a few clicks with Discovery Pay

With Discovery Pay, Discovery Bank clients can make payments without the need for banking details to any of their smartphone contacts who are active on the Vitality programme, which has over 1 million members.

“Discovery Bank clients can send money seamlessly to a Vitality client from their banking app, when they have the cellphone number saved in their contact list.  We’ll then securely deposit the funds into the existing linked and verified bank account for the Vitality client, which means it is not necessary to share any banking details over email or in other correspondence,” says Akash Dowra, Head of Client Insights at Discovery Bank.

Convenience and security with Virtual cards

Virtual cards offer the same benefits as physical cards – travel insurance, purchase protection, extended warranty and rewards. But there is an additional level of convenience and flexibility for clients with virtual cards as they are issued instantly, which means that new clients who join the Bank in minutes will immediately have a card to transact with and existing clients can simply add a virtual card on the Discovery Bank app without additional admin.

Discovery Bank recommends using virtual cards for online transactions, subscriptions and for payment platforms like Apple, Samsung, Netflix and others. As it’s possible to have more than one virtual card, clients can select the types of transactions they want to do with each card; lowering the risk of a virtual card or physical bank card being compromised. Clients can also add as many virtual cards as they need at no additional cost.

Explaining this, Dowra said, “By using both a physical card and a virtual card for varying transactions, our clients have the ability to elevate the security on their banking transactions and protect themselves against potential fraud.”

This added protection comes from every virtual card having its own unique card number, expiry date and card verification value (CVV). Because a virtual card is safely stored inside the Discovery Bank app, it can never be lost, and it is always at hand as long as a client has their device with the Discovery Bank app.

A virtual card is also safe from skimming through card readers attached to payment terminals and from being photographed to obtain the permanent account number. And, in case of fraud, a virtual card can be stopped through the Discovery Bank app and a new card will be issued in real time, without having to wait for a new card or paying a replacement fee.