Sparkasse customers can look forward to an innovation in the “Mobile Payments” app that simplifies mobile payments.
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Mobile payment is simplified with the Sparkasse app
© Rido / Shutterstock.com
In the coming weeks, the savings banks will activate a new function for the digital savings bank card in the “Mobile Payments” savings bank app and with Apple Pay. After “Girocard”, this will be expanded to include the “Debit Mastercard” payment method, i.e. it will receive a new so-called digital co-badge. This means that Sparkasse customers can use the new digital version of the Sparkasse card to make mobile payments anywhere in Germany and around the world. The combination is a clear commitment “to the popular payment method Girocard, with its advantages when paying and cash withdrawals in Germany,” explains the German Savings Banks and Giro Association.
According to the Savings Banks, the upgrade of the digital Sparkassen-Card takes place automatically if the customers have already received the new physical Sparkassen-Card from their bank with the two payment methods “Girocard” and “Debit Mastercard”. Accordingly, they can then also make contactless payments via “Debit Mastercard” via the “Mobile Payments” app (here for Android in the Google Play Store) on Android devices or via Apple Pay on iOS devices while on the move.
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Savings banks are reacting to the end of Maestro in the second half of 2023
To date, 50 savings banks in Germany are issuing the new savings bank card with a Debit Mastercard function, and other savings banks will follow. In the first quarter of 2023, Visa’s debit payment method called “Visa Debit” will also be available alongside “Girocard” on the digital Sparkasse card. According to the savings banks, two payment systems on one digital card are only available in Australia, New Zealand, France and Brazil.
The savings banks can decide for themselves which card product to offer their customers. The German Savings Banks and Giro Association assumes that the majority of all savings banks will issue the Sparkassen-Card with “Girocard” and a second debit payment method from Mastercard or Visa from the second half of 2023.
“The introduction of the digital Sparkasse card with Girocard and Debit Mastercard is an important building block for the realignment of the card strategy following the announcement by Mastercard International Inc. that it will withdraw its Maestro debit payment process from the market in most European countries from the second half of 2023 “, says the savings banks.
