mypaper, 4 February 2010 - Cheryl Lim
CONSUMERS can now settle their credit-card and telco bills, and
buy movie tickets with their mobile phones, through an application
called iNets, launched yesterday by cashless-payment service
provider Network For Electronic Transfers (Nets).
For now, 15 service providers, including SingTel, StarHub,
United Overseas Bank, Cathay Cineplexes and Singapore Power will
accept payments through the new application.
And more players like ticket operator Sistic, insurance
companies, airlines, food-delivery and motoring service providers
will join its stable of partners in the next few months, Nets said
yesterday.
The application has to be downloaded, via a link that Nets sends
to a handset after a user texts the word "mobile" to 76387.
The application is free, but the user will have to pay data
fees.
The user sets up a password-protected account, which can then be
used to pay his bills.
Besides the mobile application, iNets can be accessed at 62
iNets stations islandwide.
The number of stations will be increased to 300 by the end of
the year.
Unlike its competitors, DBS Bankowned AXS and SingPost's
Selfservice Automated Machines (SAM), iNets lets users register a
personal account that can store the account numbers of service
providers, as is the case for Internet banking.
Nets chief executive Poh Mui Hoon said yesterday: ''There is
still a sizeable number of transactions that are not paid
electronically.''
She added that Nets hopes to ''tap a significant portion of this
market segment''.
Every year, about 60 million bills are processed through
self-service payment machines like AXS.
But this makes up only a third of the total number of bills
processed here, with the rest paid in cash, with cheques or through
electronic means such as Internet banking.
Consumers my paper spoke to are excited about the new offering.
Apple iPhone user Lowena Lim, 22, an air stewardess, said: ''It
allows people who are on-the-go and frequent travellers like me to
run errands and pay our bills wherever we are.''
SAM offers over 90 payment services, including the payment of
fines and bills from telcos, cable and credit-card providers, HDB
and the Land Transport Authority.
It also allows users to pay Institute of Technical Education
course
fees and income tax at 300 machines.
AXS' 640 kiosks offer over 120 payment services.
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