Contactless payments company FitPay is set to offer prepaid capabilities on IoT and wearable devices.
Announcing the new features, FitPay, a subsidiary of mobile security company NXT-ID, said it will give consumers the option to store funds on their devices, via its general-purpose reloadable (GPR) program, The FitPay Prepaid MasterCard.
The FitPay Prepaid MasterCard option will be available to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of connected devices that integrate their products with the FitPay platform. The new features are aimed at providing consumers with the easiest way to access their contactless payments in a secure manner.
Consumers simply use the platform to load their IoT or wearable device with a prepaid value. They can then manage their money via a digital wallet, which enables reloading of the account, as well as the setting of limits on spending.
Targeting millennials
“Adding reloadable prepaid capabilities is a new feature for devices on our platform and makes our payment enablement services available on a wider range of form factors,” said Michael Orlando, president of FitPay and chief operating officer of NXT-ID.
“Prepaid accounts give consumers more flexibility in how they make contactless payments. This is particularly appealing to millennials who are more likely to use a prepaid account, more likely to own a wearable and more likely to make a contactless payment.”
The FitPay Prepaid MasterCard is sponsored by Sunrise Banks, with Cascade Financial Technology serving as the program manager. FitPay says that the device can be used everywhere that Debit MasterCard is accepted.
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A ‘natural fit’ for IoT
Solana Cozzo, North America vice president of prepaid and inclusive growth at MasterCard, suggested that “Prepaid is a natural fit for enabling payments within the IoT ecosystem.”
“It meets consumers’ needs for security and control as their payment credentials are linked to a wider set of devices. The flexible nature of the prepaid platform enables many innovative use cases with both traditional and non-traditional players, and our work with FitPay is a great example.”
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