Postepay is one of the most used payment methods in Italy, with over 19 million prepaid cards in circulation.Postepay cards are in co-branding with Mastercard, a comfortable circuit used all over the world.As with a normal credit or debit card, payment is made instantly, both in physical and online stores, where Postepay is very strong.
Postepay elaborates more than 550 million transactions per year, and is perhaps for this great amount of uses that the company introduces new services and functionality every year to facilitate operations and - why not - pamper its customers.
In this article, we will see what are the news introduced recently, and we will explain how the comfortable prepaid card by the Italian Post Office works.
Postepay: exclusive cashback for customers
The advantageous cashback program implemented by Poste Italiane through its prepaid Postepay was supposed to end on 31 December 2021.However, given the success, the company has decided to extend the deadline to 31 March 2022.
In fact, this novelty introduces an exclusive cashback for Postepay users - both normal and evolution -, which will be able to continue to receive a refund on each purchase of at least one euro, giving the possibility to accumulate up to 10 euros per day thanks to their purchases.
Of course, the service is not extended to all stores, but only to those that adhere to Postepay's cashback, and the condition to take advantage of it is to use the QR code on the dedicated app.The app is available on both Android and iOS, and it is very easy to download and activate it, however we have foreseen a guide in the following sections of the article.
Postepay can be recharged by other accounts
Postepay Open is the service that many users were waiting for.Farewell to the queues in the mail, recipe or in front of the counter to recharge the prepaid, recently Postepay has implemented a service that allows you to transfer funds directly from the bank account.
The service will therefore allow you to recharge the card by connecting a bank account of any banking institution belonging to Intesa San Paolo, Fineco, Unicredit, N 26, Banco Bpm, Revolut, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Sella, Bper and Ing.The service is aimed at all owners of Postepay Standard and Evolution.
First, if it has not already been done, you will have to download the Postepay app and access with the credentials.We will immediately see the new button, with the wording "Reloading from other accounts" or, depending on the case, "Manage Postepay Open", to join the service.
It will therefore be possible to recharge the postepay balance through a simple bank transfer - standard or instantaneous - using a FEA, advanced electronic signature, which can also be acquired during the Postepay Open activation procedure.
The app will naturally ask us to add a payment method, and in that case we will have to insert the details of our external bank account during the wizard.
Postepay: home payments
There is still a convenience to the use of Postepay: the possibility of home payments - utilities, bills, subscriptions - with a simple click has been introduced.However, this feature will only be available for Postepay Evolution, which has an IBAN.
All we have to do is - as in any type of domiciliation - communicate to the service manager L’iban of our Postepay and you're done.So goodbye to the queues to pay the bills and calendars full of deadlines: everything will be automated via Postepay.
The further novelty is the possibility of controlling and managing their domiciliations comfortably online.The user can in fact, from app or desktop:
Postepay: Send money with Western Union
In this case, users who have to send and receive money from abroad will be happy: with the last feature implemented by Postepay, it will be possible to use Western Union.
The service, already in use for several years, has also landed on the popular Postepay.Will give the opportunity to transfer money at any time to over 200 countries and territories comfortably from the app.Just select the "Western Union" option inside the "Pay" section of the app.
Once the funds are unlocked, the recipient will be able to go to one of the thousands of locations to collect the money.The extra convenience is also in the fact that the funds can be transferred to different currencies available.
Postepay: use the app
Many have a postepay, but not everyone fully exploits its features because they have not activated the app.The procedure is a little long, but simple if you know how to do it.
First of all, we must take into account that there are many Italian post apps, so we will have to be careful to choose the right one.This is the app called "Postepay".Once the application is downloaded, we will have to activate it.
First of all, if we are not yet registered, you will have to go to the Poste Italiane website and create a user account, entering an email address, a mobile number and a password, which will be used to check our identity.
We will then ask us for several personal data, which we will have to fill in to complete the registration.Once the data will have finished and clicked on confirmation, we will receive an email and an sms that will contain the codes to be entered to check them.
If we are already registered - or have just recording - the next step will be to access the app with our credentials.The access page will be the first to appear once the app is opened.
Once inside, everything we have to do is add a card.In the drop -down menu in the app, we will have to select "Add paper", and we will be reported to a screen that will ask us to enter the data - number, expiry date and code CVV2/CVC2 on the back.
We will therefore receive a US SMS thoroughly on the phone number associated with the card, and we will have to enter to confirm that we are actually the owners.
Once the card is added, the Postepay app will have officially become a payment app, and therefore require all the security measures necessary to protect the money inside.For this reason, the application will ask us to create a Posteid code, which will serve to authorize payments and operations.
The game is done!Once our app on the app has been enabled, we will have access to all the aforementioned services.
Postepay Digital: paper farewell
Once the app has been activated, we will also have the opportunity to comfortably request Postepay Digital, or the first totally digital card of Poste Italiane.Until the end of December it was free, but to date the costs are being updated.
You can activate Postepay Digital as any Postepay card, therefore both in standard and evolution mode - which however has a cost of € 15 because with IBAN.
But what does it mean totally digital?It means that - if desired - we must not necessarily have a physical copy of our card.In this way, we cannot even lose it, unless we lose the smartphone, which however is more difficult to access than a wallet.
That's right: a digital card is used via smartphone, using Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay apps, like a normal physical card.In fact, it is possible to make purchases with Mastercard circuit in over 44 million shops worldwide, and it is also possible to withdraw at the counter.
In addition, if you request a postepay digital with IBAN, with the news introduced and explained previously, it is possible to have a totally virtual account.It seems that the wallet will go out of fashion!
Postepay: Attention to scams
If so far we have talked about the many Postepay services and features, it's also time to deal with scammers.Well yes, the "cunning" of online scams have also involved Postepay, and the latest gimmick has already put many users in difficulty.
Attention then to suspicious phone calls: behind a kind and helpful operator a real criminal could hide, with the aim of entering the possession of your data and your money by exploiting the name of a credible institution.
It is a simple phone call, which we will receive on the telephone number associated with Postepay, and will use a well -known name that does not arouse suspicions: the INPS.Always associated with taxes and taxes, in this case apparently the INPS will have to repay us.
The fake operator will seem very professional to us, and will describe in detail the procedure to be carried out to obtain this juicy refund.I will provide a number to be used at the counter, and with this number, apparently, the refund procedure will take place by bank transfer.
Unfortunately, the unfortunate fallen into the scam will soon see your emptied account, because with that number inserted in the door the criminal will have access to its postepay number.
It should therefore be remembered that the INPS usually does not call people to issue a refund, but communicate more than anything else by post or email.So if we had to receive one of these calls, it is good not to trust and block the phone number.One more passage, which would save the scam to others, is to report directly to the postal police.