--- pocket money and gift vouchers go hi-tech with a SA first cellphone innovation

This is the time of year insurance brokers warn is paradise for thieves: people have received bonuses and are Christmas shopping so are more likely to be carrying cash and cards, they make easy pickings for nimble fingered pick-pockets and armed robbers.

However, South African cellphone payment provider POCit has come up with a world-first in mobile payment technology and in thwarting thieves.  They call it POCitMoney: deceptively simple, absolutely safe and the ultimate in convenience, it is a hack-proof nightmare for robbers and bliss for holiday revellers and shoppers.

“It’s also something every parent of a university student or school pupil should have at the top of their must-have list,” David Reynders, managing director of Johannesburg-based POCit said. POCit which has already received queries from the United States and from cellphone service providers in other parts of Africa about their world-beating technology came up with the solution as a way of beating crime and to provide maximum convenience to subscribers and consumers.

“It’s based on the same concept as gift vouchers,” Reynders said, “except we take it much further. If you buy a gift voucher at a certain store for say R400 you can use it only at that store or its branches. It is known as stored value. 

“We have done the same thing with POCit, basically you go to our website www.pocit.co.za or call our call centre on 08600 76248 or if already registered on POCit then access it via your cellphone. If you contact us all you need do is say, as an example, ‘I would like R500 of POCitMoney and transfer that money to the cellphone number you want POCitMoney in – either your cellphone, that of your child who is on holiday with friends or as a gift to someone.  You don’t need their bank account details; you just need their cellphone number.

“The recipient can use it immediately. POCitMoney works like a prepaid debit card or credit card, you might want to pay R100 to a friend you’re splitting a bill with at a restaurant and keep the remaining R400 for other payments in POCitMoney. The person you send money to on POCitMoney to can use it to make payments even if he or she doesn’t have a bank account.”

There are a few ways to get POCitMoney:

         People can pay you

         Or you can load it from a bank account. Capture your bank account details into POCit, they then validate it is your bank account by depositing a small amount of money in your account. You then key in the deposit number you will see on your bank account with POCit as the reference. And within two days or less you can begin using POCitMoney to transform your holiday experience – no more worrying about cash or cards.  Even if thieves steal your cellphone they can’t steal the money in POCitMoney, it is safe in cyberspace. When you get your new phone, you key in your secret PIN and the money will be sitting safe in POCitMoney ready to transact.

 

The bad news about POCitMoney, however, is that it will only be launched on 10 December. “Our engineers are working overtime to make it sooner, but the technology to make something so simple to use, is complex, we can’t deliver this exciting innovation any sooner,” Reynders said.

He said POCitMoney would have a major series of on-campus launches during orientation week at universities next year. “It’s a natural for parents to send money quickly and safely to students and ensures that students who don’t want to hassle about cards or cash can carry money in the one thing they are never without – their cellphone.”

More about POCit:

POCit is a subsidiary of major information technology company, Tradebridge and is backed by Capitec Bank, the fastest growing bank in South Africa. Payments by POCit are just 30c each compared to a minimum of R2 for internet banking and at least R5 to draw cash from an ATM or around R7 to draw cash from a teller in a bank. And at a time where hacking into internet bank accounts has become a major problem, as well as credit card skimming, ATM bombings and frauds, cellphone payments are the safest of any with no evidence of any cellphone in the world being hacked into and leading to mobile banking fraud according to Vodacom.

POCit can be used on any cellphone with a colour screen on any network. POCit can send or receive money from any bank, all the payer needs is your cellphone number. POCit does not require special SIM cards.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

David Reynders, Managing Director POCit 

c           +27 83 327 1611
t            +27 11 575 1025
f            +27 11 576 1025
e          david@pocit.co.za
w          www.pocit.co.za

POCIT HELPLINE -  08600 76248, office hours, weekdays only.

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