A particularly useful service for those with frozen bank accounts.
Buying fuel and an occasional beer is no longer the only reason why people visit petrol stations. Since May, it is possible to receive cash payments at INA’s stations as well. You just need a convenient Croatian-made app, reports Jutarnji List on November 21, 2017.
Users come to a station, open a message with a code, hand the code over to the staff to scan it and then receive the money in cash, no questions asked. To enjoy this luxury, you just need to install on your smartphone the Aircash app, a simple piece of software which enables users to send and receive money one from another, entirely bypassing bank accounts. The funds can be withdrawn at petrol stations in just a few seconds.
Users first install the app, input personal data such as name, surname and personal identification number, and then can send and receive money to and from other users of the app.
When it comes to the payment of funds into the system, the app initially required users to physically have to go to the nearest INA petrol station and hand over the money, after which the recipient would get the code to withdraw the same sum at their nearest station. But, Aircash has been improved in the meantime, so now it is also possible to send the funds from debit or credit cards, which significantly facilitates the entire procedure.
“Our target groups are millennials and slightly older people, and we have selected petrol stations because most of them are open all night. This is precisely the idea of the app itself. If you suddenly realise you have no money, at any time of the day or night you can find someone to send it to you easily. Also, it was important for us to avoid bank accounts so that everyone whose account has been frozen could use the app. And there are many such people in Croatia,” said Hrvoje Ćosić, one of the developers.
The app was developed by a large team and it took them two years to reach the final stage. One of the steps was a somewhat complicated licensing procedure with the Croatian National Bank, which met with such a request for the first time. The company which owns the app is now the only non-bank institution in Croatia which has received a payment transaction license and has broken new ground for future entrepreneurs.
Making a deal with INA was also not an easy task since the Croatian national oil company had never before received such a request. But, everything turned out well in the end, and Aircash now has around 10,000 users.
The company makes a profit by charging fees, which are lower than fees which users pay when withdrawing money from another bank’s ATMs. For amounts of up to 200 kunas, the cost is 5 kuna, for payments of up to 500 kunas, the cost is 10 kunas, and so on.
The app can be used by all people who have a valid personal identification number (OIB).
The future plans are very ambitious. The idea is to further develop the app in the direction of linking users and individual companies, and they plan to make it possible to use Aircash to buy concert passes and bus tickets. Also, they are in negotiations with Croatian Lottery which could become the second major company which has decided to implement their app.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
