Crédit Agricole Normandie-Seine has just launched a new bank card. His particuliarity ? She is able to orally announce the price of the purchase when paying at a merchant. An innovation intended for people suffering from visual impairments. Explanations.
Paying by credit card: the gesture has become so trivial that we forget that it is not obvious to everyone. Because interact with an electronic payment terminal (TPE) is not easy when you have a visual impairment – this is the case for 1.7 million people in France -.
Impossible, in particular, to read the information displayed on the small screens of VSEs, and therefore to check that the amount displayed is the correct one. Result: “89% of visually impaired people have already been victims of fraudan error or a scam when paying by credit card at your merchant,” explains Julien Lamorte, founder of HandSome.
In testing since summer 2020
To remedy this, this French fintech, created in 2019, has found a solution: make the bank card speak. Or more precisely, design a card capable of connecting to a voice assistant installed on the user’s mobile.
This “talking map” is now a reality. Called Serenipay, it has been available since January 30 in a bank, Crédit Agricole Normandie-Seine. From the summer of 2020, the regional bank wanted to join the project. The card developed by Handsome and Thalès was tested by around twenty volunteers, employees and customers from its network. “Their feedback was sufficiently enthusiastic for us to decide to market it,” explains Sébastien Brispot, assistant to the marketing department of the Normandie-Seine regional bank.
At the same price as a traditional card
Serenipay looks just like a Standard Mastercard in every way. She’s from elsewhere sold at the same price, although its manufacturing cost is twice as high. And for good reason: it is equipped with a Bluetooth device allowing it to communicate with the wearer’s smartphone.
Before being able to pay, the latter must therefore download a mobile application, which voice assistant office. When inserting the card into the POS – the device is not compatible with contactless payment – this assistant launches automatically and guides it by reading aloud the information displayed on the terminal: the payment amount , but also if the pin code entered is the correct one or if authorization is granted…
The device is “ 100% reliable », promises Sébastien Brispot. It is now expected to be deployed in other regional banks, starting with Crédit Agricole Center Ouest.