What is a digital wallet?
It’s an app that stores your credit card or debit card information, and it has two main benefits. First, you can use it to make contactless payments using just your smartphone instead of needing to carry a physical wallet with you.
Secondly, you can use it to make your online shopping checkout a quicker and easier experience (similar to PayPal). A digital wallet app is usually accessed by way of a username and a password, saving you the effort of filling in a payment form with your personal and card details every time you want to make a payment.
Digital wallet apps for your phone
Digital wallet options available so far in Australia include Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Wallet – all encrypted with the same type of fraud detection and payment protection used on debit and credit cards.
Here is our latest list of which institutions are currently compatible with which digital wallet apps as of 26 February 2018:
| Android Pay / Google Wallet | Apple Pay | Samsung Pay |
|---|---|---|
| American Express | American Express | Commonwealth Bank |
| ANZ | ANZ | ANZ |
| Australian Unity | Australian Unity | Westpac |
| Bank Australia | Bank Australia | CITI |
| Bank Of Sydney | Bank of Sydney | Amex |
| Bankwest | Bendigo Bank | People’s Choice |
| Bendigo Bank | Beyond Bank Australia | Bank of Sydney |
| Beyond Bank Australia | Big Sky Building Society | Australian Unity |
| Big Sky Building Society | CAPE Credit Union | Bendigo Bank |
| CAPE Credit Union | Catalyst Money | Big Sky |
| Catalyst Money | Central Coast Credit Union | Central Coast |
| Central Murray Credit Union | Central Murray Credit Union | Central Murray |
| Central West Credit Union | Central West Credit Union | Catalyst Money |
| Commonwealth Bank of Australia | Community Alliance Credit Union | Illawarra |
| Community First Credit Union | Community First Credit Union | Beyond Bank Australia |
| Credit Union Australia | Credit Union SA | BOQ |
| Credit Union SA | CUA | Community First |
| Defence Bank | Customs Bank | NBCU |
| Family First Credit Union | Defence Bank | CUA |
| Firefighters Mutual Bank | Endeavour Mutual Bank | Defence Bank |
| First Option Credit Union | Firefighters Mutual Bank | Nexus Mutual |
| Ford Co-operative Credit Society (Single-branded eftpos cards only) | First Option Credit Union | First Option |
| Goldfields Money | Ford Credit Union | Holiday Coast |
| Goulburn Murray Credit Union Co-Op | Goldfields Money | Horizon |
| Holiday Coast Credit Union | Goulburn Murray Credit Union | Macarthur |
| Horizon Credit Union | Holiday Coast Credit Union | Bank Australia |
| Illawarra Credit Union | Horizon Credit Union | Intech |
| Intech Credit Union | HSBC | P&N Bank |
| Laboratories Credit Union | ING | Customs Bank |
| Macquarie Bank | Intech Credit Union | Police Bank |
| Maritime, Mining & Power Credit Union | Laboratories Credit Union Ltd. | RACQ Bank |
| Mystate Bank | Latitude Financial Services | Queenslanders |
| Nexus Mutual | Lombard Finance | Select Encompass |
| Northern Beaches Credit Union | Macquarie | SWSCU |
| Northern Inland Credit Union | MyState Bank | SCU Banking |
| P & N Bank | Nexus Mutual | Firefighers Mutual |
| People’s Choice Credit Union | Northern Beaches Credit Union | Teachers Mutual |
| Police Bank | Northern Inland Credit Union | UniBank |
| Police Credit Union | Once Credit | Reliance Bank |
| QT Mutual Bank | P&N Bank | Unity Bank |
| Queenslanders Credit Union | People’s Choice Credit Union | WAW |
| Reliance Bank | Police Bank | wecu |
| Select ENCOMPASS Credit Union | Police Credit Union | Latitude Financial Services |
| South West Slopes Credit Union | RACQ | GO Mastercard |
| Sydney Credit Union | South West Slopes Credit Union | 28 Degrees Platinum Mastercard |
| Teachers Mutual Bank | Sydney Credit Union | Virgin Money Australia |
| The Mac | Teachers Mutual Bank | |
| The Rock | The Mac | |
| UniBank | The Rock | |
| WAW Credit Union Co-Operative | UniBank | |
| Westpac | Unity Bank | |
| Woolworths Employees’ Credit Union | Warwick Credit Union | |
| Wyong Shire Credit Union | WAW Credit Union | |
| Woolworths Employees’ Credit Union | ||
| Source: Android, February 2018 | Source: Apple, February 2018 | Source: Samsung, February 2018 |
| Source: www.canstar.com.au. Please note not all products from each provider will be compatible so please check with your provider. | ||
Digital wallets are a valuable service considering that according to Visa, up to 86% of mobile users and up to 68% of online desktop users decide not to make purchases due to the process of entering credit card details, addresses, and other information, often on multiple screens.
The major difference is that while PayPal is seen as a computer-based service, the digital payment services being introduced by Visa and Mastercard are tailored for mobile devices. While the services are available on computers, their supposed appeal lies in the ability to make payments from any device.
Digital wallet apps for online shopping
Visa’s digital wallet service is called Visa Checkout, and so far it’s been made available in Australia, Canada, and the USA. Consumers can also store details from other branded cards in their account, making it accessible to those who aren’t Visa cardholders.
Visa Checkout replaced V.me, Visa’s first foray into digital wallets. Rather than officially calling Visa Checkout a digital wallet, the head of Visa Checkout in Asia Pacific Greg Storey described Visa Checkout as a “simplified payments experience”.
Storey said that Visa Checkout was developed in order to reduce the amount of people abandoning online sales due to the need to fill out complex and lengthy forms. As with transactions made via credit cards or debit cards, transactions via Visa Checkout will be bolstered with triple encryption over the network. Visa reports that according to 2015 customer service surveys, there is a 51% increase in customer conversions on average when merchants use Visa Checkout to streamline their checkout process.
MasterCard’s service is called MasterPass, and is available to consumers in Australia, Canada, China, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, the USA, the UK, Poland, and South Africa. It’s a digital platform that allows consumers to access a simplified payment service using any authorised device.
It supports a wide range of point-of-sale transaction types, including NFC, QR codes, tags, mobile devices, and traditional plastic credit cards and debit cards. It also offers a simplified online payment method, similar to PayPal.
MasterPass also enables banks and merchants to offer their own digital wallet, which consumers can securely store their card information in. As with Visa Checkout, MasterPass is an open platform, meaning cards that are not MasterCard branded can still be stored and used to make payments. A major focus of MasterPass is making mobile device-based payments safer, and more accessible.
So if you’re consistently frustrated by the cumbersome forms you have to fill out whenever you buy something online, it might be worth looking into a digital wallet for your online shopping or your smartphone.
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