Octopay’s Virtual Credit Card Facilitates Convenient Online Transaction

CIMB Niaga attempts on promoting virtual credit card Octopay as an alternative solution to conventional e-commerce payment methods. It expects to net around 50 thousand customers, new and old, through this service, which will be launched next October.

The low credit card penetration forces players of local banking industry to be as creative and innovative as possible, especially when it comes to e-commerce segment, and one of the latest solutions would be the forementioned virtual credit card. Thanks to Octopay that CIMB Niaga users may now generate their credit card number virtually, which then will be valid for two transaction within 24 hours of use. Every expense will then be directly cut from the designated bank account which is registered at Octopay.

“Through Octopay, users will have a non-reusable credit card serial number which can be used to do transaction. The expense will be directly cut from their bank account,” CIMB Niaga’s Group Head Branch & Branchless Banking Melati Salim told Bisnis.com.

To activate the service, they need to connect their Facebook account as their Octopay account is built on their Facebook account. Every transaction should only be worth between Rp 10 thousand and Rp 10 million. Salim ensures that the service has got permitted by the Authority of Financial Services.

Besides being used to create virtual credit card, Octopay may also be utilized to pay installments, reserving plane tickets, topping up cellphone credit, and fulfilling amusement purposes.

The company’s target of acquiring 50 thousand users is basically not off the base if it succeeds in executing the promotion. Most of users have saving account and credit card, but debit card can’t be used for direct transaction, at least in Indonesia. Octopay can be a solution to that matter by creating numbers that function as a virtual credit card, which in reality will directly access the users’ saving account instead.

In contrast, CIMB Malaysia, CIMB Niaga’s parent company, had decided to shut the service in Malaysia last March. It’s probably caused by the high adoption of credit card occuring in the country, making virtual credit card no longer a favorable service. According to a data by Malaysia’s central bank, there are 5,5 million active credit card users in 2014, or a quarter of total owners of debit card. Different condition happens in Indonesia, obviously, as the credit card owners only cover less than 10% of the population.

Previously, BCA had offered Klikpay which allows users to create a virtual online account. This make every transaction the user makes handled by Klikpay. Of course its use is limited, as it may only be used for transaction at partnering e-commerce vendors.

The virtual credit card service indeed covers broader scope than Klikpay that almost every e-commerce giant has accommodated it. The problem lies on its vendor, which is CIMB Niaga. The bank doesn’t have that many users in smaller cities, thus its reach wouldn’t be that good.

According to a study, payment through credit card, including virtual credit card, is simpler than other means of payment. Will the people welcome this solution? We’ll see.