Wireless-network operator Orange continues to expand its reach in the payments sector with what it says is the United Kingdom’s first major contactless prepaid debit card.
Issued by Barclaycard, the MasterCard-branded Orange Cash card features a rewards program tied to the telecommunication company’s pay-as-you-go mobile service. Consumers may redeem points for additional text messages, airtime minutes or credits applied to an account.
Orange and UK-based PrePay Solutions Ltd., which manages the program and processes the card’s transactions, view the card as a way to strengthen the telco’s relationship with existing Orange mobile users and to attract new customers.
“The benefit of this card is that by being a loyal customer, you can use the loyalty points” for Orange features, Gilles Coccoli, PrePay Solutions managing director, tells PaymentsSource. “The uniqueness [of the rewards program] is that it’s integrated together with Orange’s offerings.”
Orange launched the card in April and is in the process of marketing it through different channels, including through the company’s stores and online, Coccoli says.
Orange’s new card serves as a closed-loop card on the surface, observes Celent senior analyst Zilvinas Bareisis.
“All the rewards are linked to mobile-phone use,” he tells PaymentsSource. “It makes sense to offer rewards that are not very costly for Orange.”
Cardholders may use the contactless feature for purchases up to £15 (US$24.23 or 17.14 euros). Purchases exceeding that amount require a PIN because the card uses EMV chip-and-PIN technology.
The card’s contactless function serves a greater purpose in the long run for Orange, Bareisis believes. The card “serves as a stepping stone to get consumers accustomed to using something like an e-wallet and as a bridge into proper mobile payments,” he says.
In January, Barclaycard and wireless-network operator Everything Everywhere Ltd. announced a plan to launch this summer the UK’s first contactless mobile-payment system (
Cardholders earn one point per £1 they spend up to a 2,000-point limit. Customers may redeem 100 points for 20 minutes of additional airtime or for 150 extra text messages. Two hundred points provides 50 additional minutes or 500 text messages.
At 500 points, the reward jumps to 200 minutes or to unlimited text messages for one month. Consumers also may redeem points for a £5 credit or for a £5 Orange voucher usable toward a new phone. They may redeem 2,000 points either for 1,000 airtime minutes, unlimited text messages for six months, a £20 credit or a £20 Orange voucher.
The card costs £5, but there is no monthly maintenance fee. Reloads are free at Orange shop locations but cost £1.50 at the UK post office. Point-of-sale and online transactions are free. ATM cash-withdrawals cost 2.95% of the amount withdrawn.
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