Supporters Club Card to make its debut in Pretoria

Launched in June this year at the Absa Boktown fan park for the Springboks vs England game in Cape Town, the new Springbok Supporters Club Card is a prepaid card that will allow rugby fans a quick, secure and convenient way to pay for purchases as they gather to experience Springbok encounters at Absa Boktown.

Apart from being able to use the card at participating Absa Boktown events in future, the new card will also allow for payments of goods and services at participating merchants displaying the MasterCard with PayPass and/or MasterCard Cash logos. There are over 1 000 Absa merchants countrywide so far.

Customer response is encouraging

"The extension of this service to pay for food and beverages aims to address Springbok Supporters Club fans' needs, while we seek to integrate our sponsorship properties with solutions that offer unparalleled convenience to consumers. Fans will now be able to tap the card to pay for food and beverages, saving them time and maximising their game time," says Arrie Rautenbach, Absa head of retail markets. "Response from customers has been encouraging, with over 370 000 transactions made via the various contactless smart card products from the first two months of launch."

The contactless smart card system is already making transit convenient for passengers who use myconnect cards on MyCiTi bus rapid transit in Cape Town. The same Springbok card will work in transit in Cape Town, illustrating the inter-operable nature of the new Absa Mastercard Paypass contactless card system popping up all over South Africa.

"We are in the business of making financial matters and transactions as easy and hassle-free as possible for our customers. Not only does this enhancement make life easier for our customers, but our venture into Boktown venues will also put us further ahead in the payment space and propel us to be a banker of choice to many," concludes Rautenbach.