App lets you ‘name and pay’
Created by electronic payment start-up Square, Card Case allows customers to pay at local merchants automatically by simply providing their name to complete the transaction.
“You walk in, say your name, and walk out. It’s a seamless payment experience,” said Megan Quinn of Square.
The app automatically opens a tab when it detects that a customer is within 100 metres of a business, as long as they have enabled the functionality in the app and approved the business.
The user’s arrival, name and photo, is announced on the merchant’s app giving them the ability to charge products and services to the customer’s credit card.
By giving the merchant access to customers’ names up front, the company hopes to provide a personal touch, helping customers feel like regulars even at unexplored shops.
More than 20,000 merchants have signed up for the app across the US. Although other companies have announced mobile payment apps, many have implemented Near Field Communication technology, which uses a chip in smartphones to send encrypted payment data when the phone is waved in front of the merchant’s reader.
