ABN Amro rolls out wearable payments on rings, watches and bracelets

The contactless K Ring from K Wearables
RING IT UP: The contactless K Ring from K Wearables is one of the wearables supported by ABN Amro

Customers of Dutch bank ABN Amro can now connect a wide range of Mastercard-certified wearables to their bank account and use them to make both standard, low value contactless payments and also, by entering a PIN at the point of sale, higher value transactions beyond the contactless limit as well.

ABN Amro is the first bank in the world to offer wearables that let customers make high value payments at the point-of-sale by using a PIN, the bank says.

“ABN Amro’s website features products and links to the webshops where clients can buy wearables that come with Mastercard-certified payment chips. Their wearable product will be delivered to their home and, once activated via internet banking, can be used for contactless payment immediately.

“Paying by wearable is no different from contactless payment by card: Just hold the wearable near the point of sale and enter a PIN for purchases in excess of 25 euros. ABN Amro observes a limit of 250 euros a day that clients can spend with their wearables plus PIN — the first bank in the world to support higher-amount payments for these types of wearable.”

“Garmin smart watches and soon also Fitbit trackers work a little differently for payments,” the bank adds. “Every 24 hours users are to select a PIN that they enter into their smart watch or tracker, and, if they want to make payment, they elect the wallet function before holding their smart watch or tracker to the point of sale.”

The rollout follows a 12 month pilot during which 500 ABN Amro customers have been testing out the use of NFC payments rings, watches, bracelets and keyrings. On average, clients taking part in the pilot made six payments a week for amounts under 25 euros, the bank reported in June.

“Their responses have been hugely favourable,” ABN Amro says. “No less than 80% of test users preferred wearables to a regular bank card.”

“Payment by wearable will only be made available to ABN Amro’s retail clients,” the bank adds. “These wearables are being sold by companies that have placed Mastercard-certified chips in their products. Go to abnamro.nl/wearables for a list of wearables and links to webshops where you can purchase them and link them to your accounts.”

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