Do you remember the days when you had to go to your mobile money provider’s USSD platform and go through the steps of paying a merchant in a supermarket?
Thank God, somewhere along the way, a solution that streamlined the process was found. Now, you only need to provide your phone number, and you’ll only be asked to input your PIN, and you’ll be on your merry way with the jumbo size soya nyama bag.
Not all mobile money players have this solution widely available.
On the ground, you will find that many merchants only accept EcoCash with this solution. Despite some other players like InnBucks gaining ground, many merchants only accept EcoCash.
If your money is in your InnBucks account, they will tell you to find an agent, cash out, and come back with cash.
I believe that’s what InnBucks is trying to solve with the …
InnBucks Swipe Card
InnBucks introduced a local debit card recently. The card is Zimswitch-enabled, so you can swipe, tap-and-go, and access ATMs with it.
So, if you have the card, you won’t have to deal with merchants who don’t accept InnBucks. If they have a POS machine and accept swipe payments, you will be able to pay directly from your InnBucks account using the card.
Note that it is strictly for local transactions at the moment. You cannot travel with the card or use it for international transactions just yet.
InnBucks says they are working on a Visa card. It also follows that there is no virtual card option yet.
So, no Netflix or Spotify payments for now.
Charges
You will recall that InnBucks now has a subscription model where you pay $1 a month for unlimited transactions. So, if you swipe on an InnBucks POS, it will be free.
However, you will likely mostly deal with non-InnBucks POS machines. On these Zimswitch machines, you will pay 2.6% in charges whenever you swipe. Zimswitch takes 0.6%, and Mthuli takes his 2%.
We forget, but Mthuli truly is the mafia. He makes more from these transactions than the service providers combined. That’s not how tax should work. Mobile money operators build the wallets and agent networks, and Zimswitch allows transfers between bank accounts and wallets. Then Mthuli swoops in and takes most of the revenue.
Anyway, you will need to fork out $3.50 to get the InnBucks Swipe card. InnBucks agents found at Simbisa branches will sort you out.
Mobile money cards
For some reason, mobile money cards aren’t as popular as they should be. EcoCash has had a card for a very long time, but in my own circles, very few have it. I use mine for Spotify payments, and it appears that most who have these cards need them for exactly that—online payments.
My bank-provided prepaid USD card lost out to mobile money cards. If not EcoCash, I also have the O’mari card on standby. Yet, I have never used these cards for local transactions.
Indeed, I have never personally witnessed anyone swiping with an EcoCash card in a supermarket. Yet, there is almost always someone paying using EcoCash. I don’t know why that is.
Could low adoption have something to do with the fact that users have to pay to get these cards? You saw how InnBucks’ card costs $3.50. Maybe that’s why people aren’t too keen to get them.
InnBucks will be hoping that won’t be the case with their swipe card.
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