How it works: MegaFon card

The last post of our blog was devoted to a new MegaFon product - a bank card. We tried to tell in detail about the service, and nevertheless, in the comments we received many questions about the work of the card and its use.

In today's post, we have tried to consider in detail the new MegaFon service and answer your questions in detail. Your Maxim Potapov (IT Financial Services MegaLabs) and Andrei Vengerov (Marketing Financial Services).
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What is a MegaFon card?

This is a chip bank card of the EMV standard, with which you can pay for purchases at cash desks around the world.

A card is a tool that gives customers a maximum of options for using funds on a subscriber account. With a card, you can pay for products at the supermarket, regardless of how much the new terminal is installed at the checkout and whether it is possible to pay for purchases without contact. According to the card, you can pay for goods in your favorite online store.

Many of our customers would not mind replacing the card with a special application in the smartphone. But payment by phone has a number of limitations: according to the technical characteristics of the device (the smartphone must be with NFC), according to the version of the operating system. These criteria significantly limit the ability of users to download the application and immediately use it in the nearest store.

The emergence of a MegaFon plastic card is only the first step towards the freedom to use money on a customer’s personal account. It is logical that the next step will be the possibility of paying for purchases directly with a smartphone. But while the infrastructure of receiving a payment by a smartphone as a payment instrument is inferior to the infrastructure of payments using plastic cards.

Is it possible to pay with a card for travel?

For now, it's just a bank card. It does not support the loading of the transport application of the MIFARE standard, therefore, it is not yet possible to use it as a travel payment card. But you can pay for the fare with a contactless MegaFon card on special turnstiles to pay for the subway with bank cards.

According to our data, fare payment by the touch of a smartphone is much more convenient for users than paying by a card touch. You do not need to look for a plastic carrier at the bottom of the bag or in your pocket. The phone is most often in our hand, which means that they can pay the fare quickly and without difficulty.

We are sure that the development of fare payment services will move in this direction. Therefore, the Troika transportation application is integrated into our SIM cards. The Mobile Ticket service has long been available in the Moscow region to all our subscribers.

To which account is the card tied and where is the money stored?

The money is still in MegaFon’s personal account. With the new service, MegaFon subscribers just have an additional opportunity to use this money.

You can also replenish your account by phone number and no commission. But now customers can access the deposit by the bank card number - in this case, the fee depends on the method of making the transfer.

Since the money is kept by the telecom operator, the deposit is not subject to compulsory insurance. The operator does not engage in banking, it does not have a license of the Central Bank - accordingly, it can not withdraw.

It is precisely because the card account is the personal account of MegaFon’s client that when switching to another operator, the card will no longer be valid.

How to manage services?

You can manage your card through MegaFon-Bank - a mobile application and a web-service. According to our research, it is more convenient for users to manage financial services in a separate application, rather than in an application for managing operator’s communication services, therefore we have moved away from the idea of ​​creating a single application with broad functionality.

You can ask your question about using the card by calling 5555 - bank employees will be able to advise clients on all transactions. At the same time, offline customer service takes place in MegaFon salons: a client can write all the applications that may be required to fill out (for example, challenging a transaction) in the MegaFon saloon.

How is the mobile operator and bank integrated?

Different models have been developed for different scenarios. For example, to pay for purchases with a card, transactions go through a mobile commerce platform. It interacts with the bank, passing an individual customer identifier (in our case, a telephone number). The bank converts it into its identifier and transfers information to the payment system.

But in addition to processing, there are operations such as payments from a mobile application and through the website, issuing a PIN code, sending SMS notifications - and for each of these units of systems there are different operator and bank integration schemes.

How to get a card?

In order to issue a card, you must contact your nearest communications salon. Prepaid card is issued instantly.

Also, right in the salon of communication, you go through the obligatory identification procedure: complete upon presentation of the RF passport and simplified upon presentation of the passport of a foreign state.

This is a paid service?

Subscribers of the tariff plan "All Inclusive" card is issued free of charge and without commission for service. For other tariffs, the card costs from 99 rubles, the card maintenance is also free of charge.

By the way, the balance of the phone account above 500 rubles accrues 8% per annum.

You can get acquainted with the full information about tariffs on the site bank.megafon.ru .

We tried to disclose as much as possible the details about which we could not tell in sufficient detail in the past text. If you have additional questions, you can, as usual, ask them in the comments - we will answer them in one of the following posts on our corporate blog.