TransferWise Announces PayNow Funding Option

Following a successful trial period, which began in 2018, TransferWise has added the mobile payment app PayNow to its list of funding methods. The PayNow app is available to all personal and business customers of the nine participating Singapore-based banks—UOB, HSBC, Bank of China, Citibank, DBS (including POSB), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Maybank, OCBC and Standard Chartered.

“Our customers told us they like PayNow for its speed and convenience,” said TransferWise’s lead product engineer Timothee Ledure. Even during the testing phase, PayNow proved extremely popular with users—nearly a third chose to fund transfers using it.

Paying for transfers with PayNow can be done in just a few seconds. The technology eliminates the need for payees to share bank account details; only the payee’s mobile phone number is needed.

“[PayNow] is quicker than setting up a bank transfer … and there are no extra fees for paying this way,” TransferWise says.

PayNow will be the fourth funding option for customers in Singapore. Also on offer are the more traditional methods of bank transfer, credit card and debit card.

Users paying for overseas transfers via PayNow will need to select this as the payment method within their TransferWise accounts and then enter the Unique Entity Number 201422384R (a government-issued TransferWise identifier) into the PayNow app, as well as their transaction reference. Alternatively, users can scan a QR code. No bank details will be required.

TransferWise has been making waves in the global payments industry since it came on the scene in 2011 and the company now handles $4 billion worth of transfers every month. The UK-based group undoubtedly offers one of the cheapest and slickest services for sending money across borders and also offers a useful multi-currency digital account in which users can hold funds in 40 different currencies and receive major-currency payments without fees.

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