If you shop online often, one thing that would have irritated you is having to fill in your credit card number and other items when you check out.
There’s now a smarter way from Visa, whose new Checkout service launched this week in Singapore promises to let you check out with less hassle.
What you do is sign up for an account with Visa. Here, you will key in your credit card details and address where you normally ship your items to.
When you next go shopping online, look out for the Visa Checkout button. If you see it on the website, you will be able to just key in your Visa Checkout username and password, with the rest of the details already taken care of. No need to fill in any other forms.
If this reminds you of PayPal, it does! The convenience is one reason why users go with the online payment service and now Visa is offering an alternative to that as well.
A payment service is as good as the merchants that support it, of course. A number of local companies, including Golden Village, Spizza, Guardian, Cold Storage and Giant are on the Visa Checkout scheme now.
Zuji and NTUC Fairprice are expected in the next few months, according to the Visa folks at the launch event here in Singapore.
The Republic is among 16 countries that offer the service today. Since its launch in 2014, Visa Checkout has had 10 million users transacting with about 250,000 merchants worldwide.
The added convenience it offers will come in handy especially if you are shopping on a mobile device and don’t want to go look for your wallet and credit card.
With convenience comes the worry of security risks, of course. Regularly check that your phone is updated and minimise your risk by buying from trusted e-commerce sites.
