Citi Handlowy Introduces "Pay with Your Mobile" Service for Transport Tickets

Warsaw – Citi Handlowy, Polkomtel, an operator of the Plus mobile network, and mPay, an acquirer, together with Zarzad Transportu Miejskiego (the Warsaw Transport Authority), have launched a “Pay With Your Mobile” service that allows customers to use their mobile phones to make payments directly from their bank account with Citi Handlowy. This service will be first offered to passengers of the public municipal transport in Warsaw who will be able to purchase ZTM time-limited tickets in this way. The “Pay With Your Mobile” service has a chance to soon become the first common standard for mobile payments in Poland.

“The ’Pay with Your Mobile’ service is a real breakthrough in the mobile payments market, thanks to this historic agreement. It is the first time a bank, a mobile network operator and an acquirer have agreed upon a common business model. Thanks to this agreement, the customers who have a bank account with Citi Handlowy and a mobile phone with Plus are able to make mobile payments in an easy and convenient way. The innovation in mobile payments offered by us can become a mass-market service, and a standard that others will follow,” explains Sonia Wedrychowicz-Horbatowska, Global Consumer Group, Poland Country Business Manager, and vice president of the Management Board of Citi Handlowy. “Citi Handlowy is the first bank to allow customers to pay with their mobiles directly from their bank account. Consequently, we once again prove that we have been consistent in implementing our strategy, in which the main focus is on customer satisfaction. We create solutions which combine innovation with simplicity of use and convenience.”

“Plus is the first GSM operator in Poland which has been offering its users a possibility to use mobile payments for over a year now. At present, as befits an innovator in the mobile telecommunications market in Poland, in cooperation with Citi Handlowy and mPay, we are entering a new key stage of this project, and at the same time we are setting future directions for development and the market standard,” said Jaroslaw Bauc, President of the Management Board of Polkomtel S.A. “We believe that, thanks to the fact that the service is linked directly to a bank account, mobile payments will soon become very popular and Poles will quickly discover the numerous advantages they offer. It should also be added that Poland is the first country in Europe where such cooperation has been successful for the benefit of customers.”

“Thanks to Zarzad Transportu Miejskiego (the Warsaw Transport Authority) the new service has a chance to become deeply embedded in the consciousness of the residents of Warsaw. Passengers using the public municipal transport are offered a new convenient method to pay for time-limited tickets. To purchase such a ticket they will no longer need to look for a kiosk or carry cash. All they will need is a mobile phone. Thanks to the possibility to use a mobile phone to pay for a public transport ticket, passengers will be able to buy tickets at any time and any place,” said Leszek Ruta, Director of Zarzad Transportu Miejskiego.

The “Use Your Mobile to Pay for a Time-Limited Ticket Directly from Your Bank Account” service is convenient and easy. There is no need to install additional applications and it is available to all mobile phone users irrespective of the mobile phone model they have.

All they need to do is to dial “145,” and then a code of a respective ticket type and then press #. Ticket codes are as follows: 20-minute ticket – 220020, 40-minute ticket – 220040, 60-minute ticket – 220060, and 90-minute ticket – 220090.

Today mobile payments “Pay with Your Mobile” are already accepted in more than 1,500 points of sale. In the first stage of the project the service is available mainly in Warsaw. Safety limits have been set for payments made from accounts with Citi Handlowy with the use of a mobile phone. A single mobile payment cannot exceed PLN 300 and the daily limit for mobile payments has been set at PLN 500. The “Pay with Your Mobile” service is free of charge and customers will be able to activate it by signing an electronic payment instrument agreement with the bank in Citi Handlowy branches or by calling CitiPhone.

“mPay is the first acquirer in Poland which launched a service in 2007 allowing customers to pay for purchases with the use of a mobile phone. The mPay company, as a creator of the innovative Polish solution, attaches great importance to the fact that our partners – Polkomtel and Citi Handlowy – have invited us to take part in a joint initiative which sets new trends in the mass payments market. We perceive this initiative as an important step towards the integration of the major entities in the mobile payments market. Our goal is to deliver solutions facilitating the mass use of a phone as a payment instrument. It should be noted that as far as this modern form of mobile phone use is concerned we are among the leading European countries,” said Konrad Luczak, President of the Management Board of mPay S.A.