There’s a new mobile payments solution in town, and no, it’s not Android Pay or Samsung Pay — sorry, everyone.
Starting today, Canadians with debit and credit cards issued by China’s UnionPay payment network can use the company’s QuickPass solution to complete transactions using their smartphone at a variety of point-of-sales terminals across the country.
According to the company, more than 70,000 merchants across the country, including restaurants, hotels, retail outlets, supermarkets and convenience stores, are prepared to accept payments via UnionPay QuickPass. Canadians can use QuickPass to complete transactions of $100 or less without a signature or PIN depending on the card used. QuickPass is compatible with a variety of Android smartphones.
While not a household name here in Canada, UnionPay is the world’s third largest, behind Visa and MasterCard, thanks in large part to its unfretted access to the Chinese market.
Payments via UnionPay’s QuickPass system are also accepted in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia. The company says there are more than 7-million point-of-sales terminals around the world accept QuickPass.
Related reading: What Apple Pay means for mobile payments in Canada
[source]Union Pay[/source][via]TechCrunch[/via]
