Mastercard, MegaFon help Russians pay with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay

The partnership will enable the Russian subscribers to do this by creating a virtual Mastercard card and tokenizing it via the Mastercard platform (Mastercard Digital Enablement Service, MDES).

As a result, MegaFon’s customers will be able to pay for their purchases with their smartphone. The maximum amount that may be debited from an account totals USD 1759 (RUB 100,000) per month.

Another project launched jointly with Mastercard enables MegaFon’s subscribers to create a virtual Mastercard bank card. This can be done via the MegaFon.Bank app developed by MegaLabs.

After the card is linked to the Apple Pay, Android Pay or Samsung Pay service, it can be used to pay for purchases both online and offline. Customers will receive a 20% cashback on every third purchase. Payments are also made using the Mastercard tokenization technology.

MegaFon’s customers can top up the card by topping up their mobile phone; in addition, they can manage their account using remote services. Each user may create up to 10 virtual cards linked to one mobile phone account. The user can then give the cards to his or her family members and monitor their expenses via his or her account.

MegaFon unveiled a Mastercard bank card linked to a mobile phone account in August 2016. The cards are issued by Round Bank. They are available at any outlet of the mobile network operator. By the end of 2017, over 1.2 million MegaFon cards were issued.

MegaFon cards are used primarily for paying for telecommunications services (33%) and shopping in supermarkets (25%); in some regions, the top categories of expenses also include financial services. The average size of payments for goods and services totals USD 14.7 (RUB 800) per transaction.

MegaFon cards are used predominantly by men, who make up 60% of the total number of users (while women account for 40%). 87% of people using the contactless payment technology use Apple Pay (the share of this service is the largest in the North-Western Region, where it totals 90%, while in the Far East it has the smallest share at 81%). On average, Apple users spend more per purchase.

Payments made with a virtual card also use the Mastercard tokenization technology, which involves replacing the actual number of a customer’s card with a unique generated code called a token.