You Can Now Pay for Things Using Your Fitbit or Garmin Wearable

Had your eye on a classy new leather wallet since your current one is a little ragged? At the rate technology is busy changing finance and payment options, don’t even bother!

FNB has announced that customers can now use additional devices for the contactless Point-of-Sale (POS) transactions, not just their existing bank cards.

Some Garmin and Fitbit wearables have a ‘wallet’ feature, which makes them suitable for this service. A customer simply selects the wallet feature on the device and taps it on the appropriate POS device, and voila – the transaction is done.

Security conscious shoppers might baulk at this, thinking it’s a less secure method of payment – but surprisingly, it seems like the opposite might be true. Encryption and tokenisation (effectively a ‘middle-man’ function that secures and encrypts information) are used in the transaction, making its security measures quite formidable.

An additional security measure is related to the actual device – if it’s taken off or removed, the device’s passcode must be re-entered to activate the payment option from the wallet again. The device will also only stay authenticated and active for 24 hours at a time, or until it’s removed from the wearer’s wrist – so there’s a very short window for anything to go wrong.

The service is available to any existing FNB/RMB clients who have downloaded the respective Fitbit/Garmin apps onto their phones, after which, linking a selected bank card on the app will allow users to shop easily and quickly!

And you’re looking to get yourself a Fitbit or Garmin device, check out the wide range of wearable tech available on PriceCheck!