iPay, a cash card exclusively designed for shopping on the Internet, has been launched in the UAE by Network International, a subsidiary of the Emirates Bank Group, in collaboration with MasterCard. The card is available as both a prepaid card and a credit card.
Quoted by Gulf News,Network’s general manager John Rummery said iPay is meant to meet the needs of the UAE’s fast-growing e-commerce environment for secure and efficient payment systems over the Internet. There currently are 300,000 registered Internet users in the country, he stated, and the number of individual users is quite possibly three or four times that amount.
Currently, Rummery said, about 3 percent of Internet users in the UAE are buying goods online. Tools like iPay are expected to see that number increase, he added.
To provide additional security, every time a transaction is conducted using an iPay card, the company will confirm the sale with a call to the client’s cell phone. “Should it prove to be an unauthorized transaction, the cardholder can call us back to enable us hold it back," Rummery said.
The prepaid version of iPay has a transaction ceiling between $150 to $1,000, and it carries a service charge of Dh50 each year. The credit card option costs Dh100 per year, has a credit limit of $1,000 with a minimum repayment of 5 percent or a minimum Dh100 per month. – (Albawaba-MEBG)
