The 2nd largest private bank in India today announced the launch of its mobile payment service that allows its customers to make payments through their mobile phones using their debit / credit card registered with the bank.
Movida, a mobile payment joint venture between Monitise and Visa, will provide technology that will enable mobile devices to make payments on phones. HDFC Bank customers can make mobile payments for range of services like Insurance payments, Utility Bill payment, top-up prepaid cards, buying movie tickets etc.
The mobile payment services will be completely free and it will be available across all mobile operators and all kinds of mobile handsets.
How will HDFC Mobile Payment Service Operate?
HDFC users will have to first link their debit or credit cards to their mobile number following which they will have access to service via simple menu based USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data – A protocol used by mobile phones to communicate with the service provider’s servers) mobile technology. After that, it is just a matter of selecting the payment service require and making the payment. The simple menu can complete a transaction in only a few steps [source].
The service will be complete secure and safe for users to use – Only the mobile phone registered with user’s bank can be connected to the service. User also has to setup a unique PIN number on the phone to access the account information.
The best part is, user does not need to have a high end smartphone to use this service – even the most basic mobile handset can be used to avail the HDFC mobile payment services.
The service will be first available to select group of users before being rolled out across the country later this year!
.