I got an SMS alert today from HDFC Bank that really surprised me. The SMS alert mentioned…
“Now you can shop at your favourite international sites such as Google Play, Amazon.com & more with HDFC Bank Debit Card ending XXXX.”
Here is the screenshot of the same.
Now, this is as big as it gets. What this means is, now even Debit card holders from India can start shopping on international sites like Amazon.com, Walmart.com & many others or even pay for purchases made on Google play store.
Till now this was not possible and only credit cards were accepted. With penetration of credit cards being extremely low in India, majority of Indians could never buy from international sites.
Does it really work? Yes, it does….We tried it!
To be honest, even after getting that SMS alert, I was not too sure if debit card payments would really work. So, we gave it a test run. We tried to make a purchase on Google play store. And to our surprise, it worked beautifully. And, we have tried using Debit cards earlier and they have never worked!
Here are the screenshots if you need a proof of it working:
We used the same debit card (ending 1627) which you can see in above screenshot!
The card got saved without a hitch. When Google play stores a particular card, it first verifies it for purchases, and without much of delay the verification was over and debit card got saved.
After entering the Google play account password once, the payment confirmation came in. We tried to buy a game that cost USD 0.99 and was priced in India at Rs. 50!
For first time users, Google Play makes temporary debit of 50 rupees for verification of Debit card. Once that is done you can start making purchases.
In our case it happened quite seamlessly and both the charges (for the app & verification debit) were debited at the same time.
Now that HDFC Bank has started offering international payments via debit cards, it’s time that other banks start offering it as well!
You too give it a try and let us know if you successfully make purchases on your debit card!