We’ve recently launched a trial in Wombwell, South Yorkshire to help local residents and small businesses embrace the benefits of digital services in the form of mobile payments.

Working in partnership with the South Yorkshire Credit Union, e@sy connects (South Yorkshire Public Services Partnership), Sheffield University and the Government Digital Service, we selected 15 Credit Union customers and provided them with a smartphone and the O2 wallet app.

Currently, customers of the Credit Union, many of whom can’t get a bank account, rely on using cash and have to travel to the Credit Union itself in order to physically withdraw it. So instead of using cash in their day-to-day lives and queuing up to collect it each week, these 15 customers will receive their payment via a Money Message, which they can then spend via the prepaid O2 Money Account Card or online via the O2 Wallet shopping app.

We want to help local businesses too. Many retailers on Wombwell High Street are only set up to take cash payments so to help them increase their sales, four local shops have been selected to take part in a trial using our new mobile point of sale service (mPOS). The chip and PIN device hooks up to a smartphone, allowing the retailer to take card payments and gives the customer more ways to pay in store.

We’ve made a video so you can see what the trial is all about:

 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYtyEVUctZY&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

 

We hope that by helping people to embrace mobile payments first we can encourage them to increase their digital confidence.

You can download the app to try it yourself for free here (you don’t even need to be an O2 customer!)

 

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