The new feature on Garmin's latest smartwatch, the vívoactive® 3, enables consumers to make highly secure contactless payments at near-field communication-enabled (NFC) point-of-sale (POS) terminals, allowing them to tap to pay at millions of retails locations and contactless-enabled ATMs.
"We're excited to expand the availability of Garmin Pay to Visa cardholders," said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. "The ability to make purchases right from the wrist, without phone or wallet, is an incredibly valuable feature for our active lifestyle customers."
The vívoactive 3 with contactless payment feature, Garmin Pay, is an early product to utilize the Visa Ready for Tokenization Program, via TSP* program partner FitPay.
The Visa Ready for Tokenization program gives partners access to Visa's broad network of tools and services to speed up and simplify the process for embedding secure payments in devices.
Garmin Pay is now available to Visa accountholders from numerous participating issuing banks including Bank of America, Capital One, and U.S. Bank in the United States, and BonusCard, Cornérbank, ANZ and NAB (National Australia Bank) internationally.
"Just in time for the holidays, Visa accountholders now have a simpler way to pay on-the-go with the Garmin vívoactive 3. Fitness trackers always appear on the season's must have lists and this year, Visa accountholders have another reason to pick up the smartwatch," said Jason Blackhurst, senior vice president, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa. "We look forward to continuing to add more participating issuing banks so additional Visa accountholders can experience the benefits of payments on the Garmin vívoactive 3."
"Consumers want paying for things to be faster, easier and more convenient," said Michael Orlando, president of FitPay, Inc. and COO of NXT-ID. "By supporting Garmin Pay, Visa and its issuing banks are helping to make that happen – giving consumers access to latest payment technology and enabling the way they pay to fit more seamlessly into the way they live."
The FitPay Payment Platform provides the vívoactive 3 with contactless payment capabilities, and full digital wallet functionality the Garmin Pay within the Garmin Connect app. It enables consumers to simply tap and pay at NFC-enabled POS terminals or ATMs using an existing credit, debit or prepaid card account.
FitPay's proprietary technology platform uses tokenization, a payment security technology that replaces cardholders' account information with a unique digital identifier (a "token"), to transact highly secure contactless payment and authentication services.
FitPay leverages Embedded Secure Element (eSE) chip technology within devices to offer a payment solution that is very power and memory efficient. This frees devices from needing to be tethered to a host device or connected to the Internet to transact payments, creating a convenient and completely frictionless payment experience for consumers.
Garmin Pay was initially launched in November 2017 for Mastercard accountholders from numerous issuing banks and credit unions.
