Visa launched a cashless tip service in Russia

The Visa payment system has launched a non-cash tip service in Russia: the system is being tested by the Moscow restaurant Khleb Nasushny on Strastnoy (the largest shareholder of the network is the ex-head of Wimm-Bill-Dann Tony Mayer), Vedomosti writes . The service is planned to expand, including not only restaurants, but also beauty salons and hotels.

How does it work for the client? The client can leave a tip when paying for the order: after the amount appears on the terminal, the waiter will offer the visitor to enter a tip. The total payment will be debited from the bank card in one step.

So far, the service is available only for Visa cardholders. It will be in demand: studies show that every second visitor to a restaurant would like to leave a non-cash tip.

How does it work for the waiter? The tip will be sent to the waiter on a personal electronic wallet and will be issued as an act of donation. There will be no tax, respectively: tips are not subject to them. To receive money, waiters can activate the service in the personal account of the bank (now the project partner is Russian Standard Bank). You can link a Visa card of any bank - however, a commission of about 5% will be charged for the withdrawal of funds.

Why is this needed? According to a representative of Daily Bread, the share of non-cash payments already reaches 70%. Customers have stopped carrying cash with them and often find themselves in the awkward position of not being able to leave money to the waiter.

Read also Sberbank and Rambler will launch a service that allows you to pre-order dishes in a restaurant and pay a tip with a card

Competitors. Visa won't be a monopoly in the sector, but it does have a competitive advantage: other systems require an app to be installed on the customer's smartphone. A similar system (tipping from a card) was developed by Sberbank with Yandex, Rambler and UCS on the Foodplex platform.

• Now in Russia the “non-cash tip” service is actually working in the Plazius mobile application (50% + 1 share belongs to the same Sberbank). About 300,000 rubles pass through this network every month. There is also a VTB TipTap application with the ability to accept tips.
• There are dozens of cashless tipping apps in the world, from specialized Bravo for QR-code donations to street musicians to PayPal-owned universal Venmo with a transfer volume of over $100 billion.

What's next? Other banks besides Russian Standard are interested in the project - at least VTB and Moscow Credit Bank. Otkritie Bank said they might consider launching the service if there is customer demand.