New card features contactless purchases, ATM withdrawals, zero fees and no current account
Epipoli, the leading Italian group in prepaid cards and engagement systems, brings FinTech to the supermarket and launches Epipoli Prepaid Rechargeable Mastercard , the first rechargeable prepaid card that can be purchased in food, non-food and multimedia retail outlets.
It is a concrete example of Neobank involving both digital and physical stores. Aspiag Service - Despar dealership in Triveneto, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, Carrefour , Esselunga , Il Gigante , Iper la grande I - Finiper Group are the retail chains, where, starting from December, it will be possible to buy the card and recharges.
Once activated, the card can be used to make purchases in physical and online stores, in Italy and around the world and to withdraw money from ATMs, even in the absence of a bank account. All the other retailers will follow in January, including Feltrinelli and Mondadori.
In a country where the use of credit cards is among the lowest in Europe, Epipoli's Rechargeable Mastercard breaks down the barriers to online purchases and places a limit on the use of cash. It is a true democratization of electronic payments and a kind of education towards them. Even young people can use the card, and the so-called " non-bankers " can always have money at hand. Companies can, on the other hand, develop innovative loyalty programs with the cashback mechanism.
Cashless is a consolidated trend in Italy, where the market of FinTech companies is also growing, whose services are increasingly requested by consumers. In the first half of 2021, transactions settled through digital payments increased by 23% compared to the same period in 2020, reaching € 145.6 billion [1].
At the heart of the digital payment revolution, prepaid cards in the last 12 months have increased by 32%, recording 760 million transactions for a value that has gone from 21.2 to 28 billion euros.
Epipoli, which already manages one of the largest prepaid programs in Europe, with the new Rechargeable Epipoli Prepaid Mastercard, makes digital payments even more accessible, offering a versatile, long-lasting solution with greater availability to purchase directly in the large-scale retail trade . PwC Italia's annual FinTech Observatory has in fact included Epipoli among the companies that have developed innovative payment solutions in this market.
Gaetano Giannetto, Founder and President of Epipoli, comments: “We were the first to introduce Gift Cards in Italy in 2006. Today we are the first to guarantee digital payments and services such as money withdrawal within everyone's reach. A revolution that brings FinTech directly to the point of sale, bringing even non-banked consumers closer to connectivity in an era of growing demand for digital services ”.
Equipped with chip and contactless technology, Epipoli Prepaid Rechargeable Mastercard can be purchased at the cash desk (the cost to the public is € 9.90), has no annual fee , can be recharged up to € 3,000 at any time and has a maximum annual fee of top-up of € 25,000 (by purchasing top-ups in the same points of sale where the card is purchased or online).
From the moment of purchase, to activate the Rechargeable Epipoli Mastercard card it is sufficient to carry out the online onboarding process , certified by Infocert , enter your data and create your account on www.mygiftcard.it .
Within their personal area on MyGiftCard, users can check all the details of their card in real time, such as balance, transaction history, top up the card and access a series of benefits. The new App, which provides very advanced features, will be launched by the first quarter of 2022.
Epipoli is one of the international companies in the FinTech sector and is the market leader in Prepaid services and Engagement systems. In 2006 it introduced Gift Cards in Italy and, today, the prepaid payment network it has built - which includes 400 Partners in over 70,000 points of sale in Europe and more than 4 million consumers - represents the link between the digital world. and that of physical stores.
[1] Innovative Payments Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano.
For more press information:
EPIPOLI
Alice Brambilla
a.brambilla@barabino.it
Cell. +39 328.26.68.196
Letizia Castiello
l.castiello@barabino.it
Cell. +39 348.62.37.666