Reliance, HDFC Bank launch virtual credit card

Imagine your mobile phone doubling up as your credit card. Reliance Communications and HDFC Bank have joined hands to offer virtual mobile credit cards in the country. Under the scheme, a Reliance mobile phone will get credit card functionality and the mobile number will act as the credit card number. “Initially, the service would allow card holders to make payments to merchant partners like Adlabs, Yatra and Billdesk, with the list to be expanded to other partners follwing the roll out,” Mahesh Prasad, president of the applications, solutions and content group at Reliance Communications said. For HDFC Bank, this will be an additional payment choice for customers who don’t want to disclose their credit card details online. “This is not an exclusive agreement. Over the next few months, we might tie up with more mobile companies as well for similar services,” said CN Ram, country head for IT, said. The service will come with a transaction passcode and there will be no financial liability to the user in the case of mobile phone theft. It could become a preferred way of making payment in future as it does away with the risks associated with carrying cards and revealing its details at merchant establishments.Security and convenience are two major benefits of the new facility, he said.Internationally, this technology was introduced only a couple of years ago and has been a great success in countries like South Korea, Japan and Philippines, Mr Prasad added.