New system to handle bill splitting
The awkwardness and calculations that go into bill splitting will soon be a thing of the past.
A new payment platform, or fast payments, using customers’ mobile numbers or email addresses to transact in seconds will be introduced in January and dozens of different financial institutions are getting ready to adopt it.
The system will tackle many of the problems with bill splitting which, according to research by Beyond Bank Australia, include people waiting for others to repay them, restaurants refusing splits, and people not carrying enough cash. The research shows almost 40 per cent of split bills are split evenly.
Beyond Bank’s general manager of customer experience, Nick May, said bill splitting was simply a lot of trouble.
“Many restaurants simply don’t allow it, only 16 per cent of us actually get around to transferring the money, and most of us don’t carry enough cash to cover the bill anyway,” Mr May told news.com.au.
“All of these things will stop once real time transfer comes in and basically you’ll be able to pay friends at the table before you even pay the restaurant.
“We’ve all got that one friend who always borrows money because they left their wallet at home — well, that problem is solved overnight.”
People’s Choice Credit Union spokesman Stuart Symons said transferring money between family and friends using the system now took up to 72 hours if it was between different financial institutions.
“The introduction of fast payments will mean that transfers between participating financial institutions will be processed and received within minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Mr Symons told news.com.au.
“The introduction of PayID will also make sending and receiving payments easier by using a mobile number or email address instead of spending time looking up BSB and account numbers.
“More than 50 credit unions, banks and building societies are currently working towards connecting to the platform, which is expected to launch early next year.”
by Leon Gettler, November 28th 2017
Image - Sydney Cafe
