M-PESA is widely used in Kenya and it the most used method of making payments and transaction by most people in Kenya. Despite the fact that it is most used within Kenya for transactions, the ability of this platform to be used for international money transfers and payments seems to be a little limited.
We all know Safaricom has at one time tried to combine financial technology services like PayPal and MoneyGram but for the most part, the platform mainly has its highest ranks only in Kenya.
Safaricom was able to incorporate the virtual VISA Cards into M-PESA making this service available to the millions of M-PESA customers who can now create virtual VISA Cards and use them to perform payments online. In this article, we give you a quick guide on how you can set up your own Virtual VISA Card.
Follow these simple steps to get yourself a virtual GlobalPay card
- Go to Google PlayStore or App Store and install the M-PESA app
- Open the app and go to the “Grow” tab
- Click “GlobalPay” and Opt-in.
- You will receive an SMS from ‘Globalpay’ notifying you about the successful opt-in.
- You will then need to customize your card color and image
- After customizing how it looks, you get to create the Card.
- You will receive an SMS with your card number and its expiry date. Keep these safe.
- From the app you will be able to see card number details and the dynamic CVV.
If you don’t want to use the app, then you can dial *344# and access Lipa na M-Pesa, Global Pay option.
These M-PESA Virtual Visa Cards are an extension of your M-PESA account and are subject to M-PESA’s limitations in terms of amount transactions, balance limits, and so on. For instance, you can only transact a maximum of Ksh 150,000 and the maximum amount you can transfer in a day is capped at Ksh 300,000, just like M-PESA.
Across the border, Ugandans have been enjoying virtual cards on their major carriers, MTN and Airtel for years now in form of the MoMo Card and Airtel’s Virtual Mastercard. It is refreshing to see Kenya joining this league.
Before this, Kenyans had to resort to using apps like Eversend, Chipper Cash, and Flutterwave to get virtual Mastercard and Visa cards to pay for their subscriptions or pay for goods and services online. This first-party solution is a welcome addition and should make OTT services like Netflix and others a lot more attainable.
