Cashless payments for goods and services are increasingly entering our lives, and the pandemic and quarantine have accelerated changes in the payment habits of Ukrainians. And it is not surprising, because non-cash payments have many advantages over using paper money and coins. So let's compare.

*According to NBU https://bank.gov.ua

Convenience and economy

It is easy with the card to pay for online purchases, utilities, book railway and air tickets, hotels, and the like. This is also cost reduction, in addition to convenience and saving time. For example, when paying in cash through the cash department for housing and utilities, tickets, you will have to add a fairly large commission, and with non-cash payments, it is less, absent, or in some cases, the cost of goods/services may also be reduced.

Besides, the card is an opportunity for convenient urgent transfers of funds to parents and children, friends, and acquaintances in any part of Ukraine and abroad. And in some banks, it is very profitable. So, with a "vseKARTA" card from PUMB in online banking, you can freely make transfers to cards of any bank without a commission.

*According to NBU https://bank.gov.ua

Hygiene and safety

The card is more hygienic than the cash. The importance of this benefit has become especially noticeable during the Covid-19 pandemic. A plastic card is only in your hands, unlike banknotes – the risk of catching a disease of "dirty hands" is reduced.

Moreover, modern plastic has several levels of information protection, and the magnetic stripe has been replaced by a chip with contactless payments PayPass in Mastercard and PayWave in VISA. Now, to pay, you just need to attach the card to the POS-terminal without giving it to the cashier.

Such cards have a higher (compared to the previous generation) level of protection:

• They cannot be faked due to the unique encryption of the chip. Each transaction has a dynamic code, during its execution fraudsters will not be able to change the information and the code cannot be used to confirm another transaction.
• A POS terminal performs an operation only once and is immediately disconnected, which makes it impossible to make an erroneous or intentional withdrawal of funds.
• For amounts over 500 UAH – additional protection: mandatory introduction of a PIN-code.

Журнал «Народний банкір» №15/2021

If you have lost your plastic, you can urgently block it by calling a hotline or using online banking. Then contact the bank to reissue the card. An instant card can be restored in a matter of minutes; a personalized one will be produced in a few days. If paper money is stolen from you, then this, as a rule, is forever.

Accounting and control

The card allows you to use part of the money, while maintaining access to the entire amount at all times. And also timely control expenses using online banking, Push-messages in mobile banking on a smartphone, messages in Viber or other messenger. Online banking still has the ability to do home bookkeeping.

Simplicity and rapidity

The card is not only plastic. It can be digitized into an Apple Pay mobile wallet or Google Pay on your smartphone. First, check if the device supports the NFC function. If it does, download the Google Pay or Apple Pay app from the markets and add payment cards.  

The NFC function – Near Field Communication – is designed to exchange data between a gadget and a payment terminal at a distance not exceeding 10 cm. To do this, it is enough to attach 2 devices to each other, perform 1-2 simple actions (depending on the payment system used) – and contactless payment with the device passed.

All this happens thanks to the built-in NFC chip.

• In the latest models of gadgets, it is built right into the motherboard, and in older devices, they can be added using a sim card, memory card, or a separate tag with such a module. You can find out whether a particular mobile gadget supports NFC technology from its characteristics.
• The physical card number is used only once when setting up the gadget and then is not saved anywhere. It is digitized and then only the encrypted virtual number is used.

Moreover, today you can pay with other payment instruments besides a smartphone – smartwatches, key fobs, rings. Which device is the most convenient – you choose. For example, a Visa payment ring is an ordinary thin circle with a programmable NFC chip inside. At the same time, outwardly it is not at all visible. In the beginning, the ring was designed in order to simplify the life of athletes, and since the gadget has proven itself well, they decided to put it into mass production.

*According to NBU https://bank.gov.ua

Choose convenience and safety. Make simple and fast non-cash and contactless payments for goods or services.

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