News.gr: Payband, the new contactless payment method for the first time in Greece
For the first time in Greece comes Payband, the new method of intact transactions.
The Colour Day Festival brings a new initiative. The owners of the special Payband bracelet are able to trade quickly and contactless.
Artemios Siderakis, the founder of Skull Productions, the company that organized the successful festival in recent years, spoke to news.gr about this innovation.
- This year’s Colour Day Festival kicks off a breakthrough, since for the first time in Greece, a festival uses the “Payband” special method.
We are very pleased to be able to bring to Greece something so innovative and useful through the Colour Day Festival. Our festival gathered more than 40.000 spectators in 2016. This year we took this initiative, as with the use of the special Payband bracelet that we created for the first time in cooperation with the National Bank of Greece nd VISA, we will be given a variety of solutions regarding the access to the festival, but also the way the transactions can be made, quickly and contactless
- What are the differences that it offers, given the data so far, concerning the method of trading?
The bracelet is an idea of the organizing company of Colour Day Festival, Skull Productions. The bracelet existed abroad for quite a long time, the use of which was limited to entry and trading only in the festival area. However, at the Colour Day Festival, for the first time,you will be able to use the same bracelet not only for your entry to the festival and your purchases within it, but at any other place outside the festival just like a prepaid card by simply upgrading your payband. This is the essential difference between the payband and any other similar bracelet that existed so far.
Its use is very simple. If the person receives his bracelet from one of the 19 selected NBG branches, he activates it on the spot by placing the card he will find on Payband’s packaging and from that time he will be able to charge the bracelet with money. So every person owning a payband can now carry out in-market transactions at the festival on June 17 at OAKA, and from the very next day he/she can use the bracelet under conditions for any other transaction.
- What are the benefits of Payband? How do you charge it?
Thanks to the use of the bracelet, viewers can easily, quickly and contactless enter the festival area, since a simple check-in of the bracelet is sufficient.
All transactions in the festival are done exclusively with this, without cash and without any delay. The bracelet is an idea of the organizing company of Colour Day Festival, Skull Productions. The bracelet existed abroad for quite a long time, the use of which was limited to entry and trading only in the festival area.
It is also waterproof, a major advantage for the upcoming summer, since one can wear it even when exercising or swimming in the sea. The charging of the bracelet is simple and can be done at any time at any National Bank branch, the i-bank pay application, or from the National Bank’s specially designed charging kiosks on the day of the event.
- Do you think that after the Colour Day Festival people will continue to use Payband?
Lately, it has been observed that the frequency of contactless transactions in Greece are significantly increasing. People are aware of the need for speed and flexibility that Paybands can offer in conjunction with capital controls.
Young people are also aware of the necessity of contactless transactions and seem more open to new technological methods that can make their everyday life easier. They see it as a gadget providing them safety as well as comfort in their moves and transactions.
- What does every visitor need to do to use Payband after 17/06, the day of the Colour Day Festival?
Every visitor can easily upgrade the Payband to Prepaid Card either at any National Bank branch or via the i-bank pay application.
- Does such a product show how transactions will be made in the next decade or maybe even earlier?
Judging from the use of contactless transactions abroad, it is certain that in the near future it will be the most common way of trading in the country, perhaps the only one.
We are glad to have the opportunity to introduce it first in Greece. We are waiting for you at the OAKA on June 17th to try it out.