Oxigen Wallet Launches Virtual Debit Cards Powered By Visa

The digital wallet segment is heating up with the leading companies like Paytm, MobiKwik and Freecharge quickly partnering with various multinationals to provide payment solutions. Oxigen Wallet, a relatively newer entrant, has very early shown some good growth and volumes. Last month, Paytm had launched their own virtual prepaid card in association with ICICI bank and it did not take much time for Oxigen to catch-up.

Oxigen Wallet has partnered with Visa to unveil its virtual debit cards. These cards can be used just like any other debit card to make payment online.

Dubbed as Visa Prepaid, the user can create one virtual card for one account or one virtual card for every transaction, which are Visa gateway compatible with various online sites like Amazon, Uber, Ola, Flipkart etc. This sounds funny right now, but will be really helpful for the customer to have an option of generating one card only for one specific transaction, if the amounts are high. These can also be useful, if a user is paranoid about giving out their permanent card number (for fear of online fraud, hacking etc) for online transactions.

Pramod Saxena, Founder of Oxigen Services India, said “Mobile virtual card has been in the works for over a year and we’ve launched it today. Today, most mobile wallets have to do integration with service providers, some like Flipkart or Snapdeal don’t support mobile wallets of other brands. But, customers need one payment instrument which can be accepted everywhere, which no other wallet has. We are aiming to driving transactions this year, and providing avenues for use of wallet. Virtual cards is one of the avenues. We expect this to drive the usage significantly for us.”

How to get a virtual debit card

The service has been released for over 15 Million customers of Oxigen Wallet and if you’re a customer, there is an offer waiting for you. All you have to do is go to the application on your phone and register with Visa. Once done, recharge your debit card with the desired amount from the wallet itself and use it for any transaction you want.

You can make one card for your own account and keep refilling it for multiple usages. Or, you can make one new card for every transaction.

The card is transferable to friends and family through the application itself. The benefit of having a virtual debit card as opposed to a wallet is simply that the card can be accepted at any merchant compatible with Visa, however the digital wallet is only acceptable on certain merchants.

Mobile wallet users are increasing day by day with various offers from Wallet companies and cashback and reward points, which are more enticing than using a credit or debit card. These cards are also easier to use since there is no physical presence of a card, thereby reducing overall fraud or misuse.

With the virtual debit card, Oxigen wants to make a mark in the industry and gain as much customers as possible to increase its customer base. While there are major advantages to the virtual card, Paytm and Freecharge could soon be upping their game with discounts and cashbacks currently missing on Oxigen Visa Prepaid.