In which banks do you pay with a mobile phone and a watch?

The sixth year of the survey on the best banking applications in Slovakia – Smart Banka 2020 – is currently underway on the smartbanka.sk website. Voting takes place from 19 January 2021 to 28 February 2021.

Mobile payments

The topic of payment by mobile phone or watch is very popular in Slovakia. Slovaks can currently pay via Google Pay, Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay. Banks are fully aware of this and today virtually everyone offers minimum payments Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Dates of launch of mobile payment services in Slovakia:

• Google Pay: 28.2.2018
• Garmin Pay a Fitbit Pay: 25.4.2019
• Apple Pay: 26.6.2019

Users who pay by mobile phone or watch no longer want to return to the classic card payment. Paying with a watch or mobile phone is convenient quickly and, of course, safe. Even more secure than paying with a physical credit card. Plus, you always have them with you.

Supported devices

Service Google Pay they can use smartphones with the Android operating system and NFC technology. The condition is that they do not have a modified (root) system, cannot run on the developer version and cannot have an unlocked bootloader. We will not pay for watches via Google Pay in Slovakia, Google has not enabled it yet.

Service Apple Pay can be used on all iPhones from model 6 and up, as well as on Apple Watch with NFC.

Pay via Garmin Pay a Fitbit Pay can only users who have purchased a watch with the support of these services, that is, those that have NFC.

For all the above-mentioned services, in addition to the supported device, the user must also be a client of the bank that supports this service.

Supported banks

	Google Pay	Apple Pay	Garmin Pay	Fitbit Pay
365.bank	✅	✅	✅	✅
ČSOB	✅	✅	✅	✅
Banka yarn	✅	✅	✅	✅
mBank	✅	✅	✅	✅
OTP bank	✅	✅	❌	❌
The Post Bank	✅	✅	✅	✅
Prima bank	✅	✅	❌	❌
Raiffeisen	❌	❌	❌	❌
Slovenská sporiteľňa	✅	✅	✅	✅
Tatra Bank	✅	✅	❌	❌
VÚB	✅	✅	❌	❌
UniCredit Bank	✅	✅	❌	❌

Can’t decide? Compare banks

On the page SmartBanka.sk you will find list of all connected banking applications and after clicking on any of them you can see an extensive list of functions that it offers to clients. You can very easily compare the application functions of individual banks and choose the one that users think is best.

mBank was among the first banks to launch a service in Slovakia in February 2018 Google Pay of June 2019 Apple Pay. From October 2019, our clients can also use the services Fitbit Pay a Garmin Pay. It is the services for payment by smartphones and watches that are of great interest to our clients. In addition, at mBank, we enable our clients to use all these services not only with debit but also with credit cards.

Current mobile payments through any of these services are used by 20% of mBank clients. In December 2020, they paid a total of more than € 5.5 million in this way. The average amount of a mobile payment is EUR 25 and our clients use it as a full-fledged card replacement, not only for smaller amounts.

Lukáš Kiac, Head of Mobile and Internet Banking Development at mBank

“As the largest digital bank, we brought Google Pay and Apple Pay to our clients on the day of their arrival in Slovakia. After Google Pay and Apple Pay, we have expanded our services for owners of Garmin and Fitbit smart watches. We believe that modern Slovakia needs the most affordable digital services, and therefore we decided to give the opportunity to pay innovatively to those who are not yet our clients. Thanks to a free account for new clients, all Slovaks can try payments by mobile phone or watch.

(note: Google Pay launch from February 2018, Apple Pay from June 2019, Garmin & Fitbit from July 2019)

Also based on experience from other countries, we expected the interest in mobile payments to be high, but the real results far exceeded our expectations. People have liked mobile or watch payments because they are really very convenient, fast and secure. Our experience shows that once they try them, they pay by mobile phone more often than with a payment card, as well as lower amounts. In total, the volumes of mobile payments per month are in the order of millions of euros.

In addition, during the lockdown last spring, we saw a twofold increase in the number of clients who added their payment card to their mobile device. This means that the number of people who want to pay with a mobile phone or watch is constantly growing. In addition to convenient payment, the reason is also security, as when paying by mobile phone, it is possible to pay amounts of more than 50 euros without entering the PIN code. ”

Marta Cesnaková, spokeswoman for Slovenská sporiteľňa

“The corona pandemic has accelerated digitization and turned its attention to the active use of mobile banking. At the end of the year, UniCredit Bank came up with a new version of the Smart Banking mobile application. The goal is to continuously improve digital channels and, based on feedback, to improve the application. UniCredit Bank’s statistics show that using the application saves the average user four hours of their time a year, which corresponds to up to 12 visits to the stone branch.

Thanks to it, clients can conveniently control their bank account from anywhere, through the application they will handle most common tasks and do not have to visit a branch. In addition to the modern design, it includes a new division of the payment overview or details on current and credit accounts and credit cards. Easy orientation and a user-friendly environment are a matter of course. The application is available for iOS and Android operating systems.

Clients can thus even better manage their finances, have a better overview of payments, be able to categorize expenses, or more easily view monthly reports on account movements.

UniCredit Bank Smart Banking has the option of logging in via Touch ID or Face ID, where the user can directly enter payments with one click. The application includes the ability to categorize your costs or easily and quickly search for transactions using keywords. ”

UniCredit Bank

A lot has happened in 2020

The year 2020 was not at all poor for news in the world of mobile banking. Even with the current situation in the world, banks are becoming increasingly aware that modern and mobile banking are getting closer and closer to each other. In addition to the innovations brought to the market by established banks last year, younger players are also shuffling cards in this market, which is becoming more and more visible.

And the expected growth of mobile commerce (M-commerce) is becoming more and more visible.

“The pandemic and the growth of online shopping via mobile devices is also a challenge for e-shop owners who want to ensure a comfortable and secure purchase for their customers, but also for us as a payment gateway provider. Customers shop anytime, anywhere.

Mobile shopping is a natural development of e-commerce. We all know how inconvenient and tedious it is to enter payment details from the small screen of a mobile device. Now with new mobile payment solutions, we can offer customers a truly diverse range of payment options. From the first purchase in the online store, the customer does not have to manually enter their payment card details, all they have to do is choose Apple Pay or Google Pay. It’s a fast, safe and convenient way to shop.

Consumer shopping behavior has changed dramatically over the past year, not only in the “mobile commerce” environment, but also in contactless payment via mobile phone or watch. We do not expect consumer behavior to return to the original offline purchases and payments once the pandemic subsides. ” says Jana Hmírová, director of Payout.

Vote and win a smartphone worth 1000 euros

Feel free to pass your voice to your favorite banking app. All voters in the Smart Bank 2020 poll will be included in the draw for a new smartphone worth 1000 euros.