Kerv, the world's first contactless payment ring, launches on Kickstarter

Kerv, the London fintech startup, today launches the world's first contactless payment ring on kickstarter.com in a bid to raise £77k mass-production capital via crowdfunding.

Kerv wearers can make instant contactless payments of £30 or lower with a single gesture – no card, PIN, or paired smartphone required. Accepted anywhere in the world that takes contactless payments, Kerv is always on hand, removing the need to carry a wallet, purse, cash or cards – perfect for those with active lifestyles. The Kerv ring never needs charging and doesn't need to be paired with a smartphone to work, unlike some power-hungry smartwatches sporting contactless payment functionality.

Kerv seamlessly blends form with function, creating a beautiful and understated piece of wearable tech which, uniquely, looks and feels nothing like a piece of wearable tech. Available in black or white, Kerv's sleek outer shell is engineered from zirconia ceramic, a material most often found in nuclear reactors and spacecraft. And dental surgeries. Zirconia is lightweight, hypoallergenic and one of the most scratch-resistant materials on the planet, necessary for an item of functional jewellery designed to be worn all day, every day. Kerv is also waterproof.

Beyond retail payments, Kerv can be used on the Transport for London network (and other global cities' mass transit systems). Kerv also offers instant sharing of emergency, medical or contact details at the tap of an NFC-enabled phone, plus one-touch access via compatible NFC locks and security systems – which means even more pocket junk can be left at home.

Kerv founder, Philip Campbell, said, "Currently, wearable payment devices are either eye-wateringly expensive or thoroughly unattractive. But the biggest issue I have is that they're all worn on the wrist, which has to be placed flat against the contactless reader in a way that feels extremely unnatural and awkward. With a creative background – plus eight years' experience in payments – I felt we could do better. So we did, designing Kerv to be the most ergonomic, natural and convenient contactless payment method possible."

Phil continued: "We feel Kerv is a perfect fit for Kickstarter, but we don't just see the campaign as a way of raising the funds to take Kerv to mass production; we want to elicit the input and support of a community of forward-thinking individuals that have a real desire to help bring great products to market. "

Kerv Chairman David Hunter added: "A lot of technology in payments strikes me as being a solution looking for a problem. I'm confident that Kerv will be well received on Kickstarter because it solves genuine problems, focuses on the user-experience and makes the underlying technology invisible."
Kerv, the world's first contactless payment ring, launches on Kickstarter today, Friday the 25th September.

Former Ukash CEO, David Hunter, appointed as Chairman of Kerv, the wearable payments start-up

Kerv the wearable payments start-up, today announces the appointment of former Ukash CEO, David Hunter, as Chairman of its board of directors.

This announcement comes ahead of the imminent crowd-funding campaign for the start-up’s launch product: Kerv – the world’s first contactless payment ring.

Kerv founder, Philip Campbell, said, “We’ve fused fashion and function to produce a beautiful piece of wearable NFC technology that we genuinely believe will appeal to a mass audience, not just to the tech-savvy. David has considerable experience bringing payments products to market across multiple territories, and will be instrumental in helping us deliver Kerv to the widest possible audience.” Philip added: “I’ve known and admired David for many years, and I’m very excited to be working with him on Kerv.”

Responding to the announcement, David commented: “I’m an avid supporter of technology and payments innovation. The Kerv contactless payment ring encompasses both, and I’m delighted to be part of the dedicated and enthusiastic team that’s bringing it to life.”

The Kerv contactless payment ring will be launching on Kickstarter at 7am GMT on Friday 25th September.

Ukash changes name to paysafecard

Following the acquisition of Ukash by paysafecard earlier this year, Ukash is switching to paysafecard. paysafecard, the global market leader in prepaid online payment methods and member of the international Skrill Group, announces that from 31st August 2015 onwards, Ukash vouchers will be replaced by paysafecard vouchers at retailers across the UK.

Paysafecard has already been available in the UK for many years and offers a wide range of advantages such as innovative online accounts and 24/7 customer service in several languages. Ukash vouchers will still be accepted for redemption at online shops until 31st October 2015.

Paysafecard offers a secure and fast prepaid payment solution for online digital goods and services. There is no need to enter personal information, bank or credit card details when paying at an online shop. With paysafecard, retailers and partners attract consumers who want to benefit from the extensive offerings and global presence of paysafecard as well as the greater choice of thousands of online shops where paysafecard is accepted. The product is available worldwide at over 500,000 sales outlets in 40 countries. The company paysafecard is known for its innovative solutions and the diversity of additional services like the mobile app and round the clock assistance in a wide range of languages from the customer service team. Therefore, switching from Ukash to paysafecard has many advantages for both customers and retailers alike.

A comprehensive campaign has been launched to ensure that retailers currently selling Ukash and consumers holding Ukash vouchers are aware of upcoming changes. This includes messages on the Ukash website and in direct marketing campaigns. Also, a retailer engagement programme is being undertaken throughout August to provide outlets with new point of sale merchandise and information about paysafecard for their customers.

A consumer promotion is also being launched in August offering current Ukash customers the chance to try out the paysafecard service with a free £5 paysafecard PIN.

Udo Müller, CEO of paysafecard, comments: “The acquisition of Ukash has given us the opportunity to expand the choice for consumers wanting to make secure online payments. We have brought together the best of the prepaid technologies from both Ukash and paysafecard to give consumers a safe and easy way to make online payments and we are now embarking on a nationwide campaign to ensure the retailers and users are aware of the changes taking place.”

The Emerging Payments Association launches world's first dedicated payments incubator: the Catalyst

London, 18th June 2015 - The Emerging Payments Association (EPA) today announces the launch of its incubator for early stage payments companies, the Catalyst. The Catalyst provides access to investors, workspace, mentors and commercial partners in association with MasterCard and The Bancorp. The Catalyst beneficiaries - its ‘Rising Stars' - are new entrants to the fintech industry, mostly founder-owned and with a combined investment and revenue between £0.5m and £2m in the last twelve months. Six payment companies have already been selected for the programme.

"With the rapid growth of fintech, many entrepreneurs have recognised that at the core of their business model lies payments. But the emerging payments industry is highly complex, rapidly changing, difficult to enter and it's easy to get it wrong," says David Hunter, Advisory Board member of the EPA. "So we are now helping the Rising Stars of the industry to get it right. These are those early stage companies that have strong propositions and ambitious leaders who need help from the community."

"Access to an established network of like-minded payments professionals and a fee-free package that takes the risk - and angst - out of being a fintech payments entrepreneur is a winner for our Rising Stars," concluded Hunter.

The first six Rising Stars come from Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary and the UK:

• Cashwave, an international remittance company
• Cubits, a mobile wallet and Bitcoin business
• DigiSeq, an NFC wearables business
• Pannovate, an augmented reality company
• Peak Financial Services, a programme manager
• W2, online screening tools

In its first year, the Catalyst aims to help 25 Rising Stars to innovate more effectively and scale their businesses. As well as receiving help with raising funds and guidance from mentors, Rising Stars will also showcase their products, receive online and social media exposure, and meet prospective partners and clients through the EPA network.

"We have been supporters of the EPA right from the very start. The launch of the Catalyst marks a new milestone in supporting the payments industry's newest innovators. We look forward to supporting them with opportunities for members to visit our offices, see our products and solutions and benefit from our mentoring. Moreover, it is a two-way dialogue, and the Catalyst members will also be offered the chance to present to us and showcase their own products/services and solutions. Indeed, MasterCard can also learn and discover from new entrants and this will be a big part of our continuing innovation efforts," said Scott Abrahams, Group Head Acceptance and Emerging Payments, MasterCard.

"The Bancorp is both delighted and honoured to be a Benefactor of the Catalyst alongside MasterCard. Delivering excellence in payments innovation and supporting partners to create successful payments businesses is core to our strategy and fits perfectly with the goals of the Catalyst. We look forward to being involved in this excellent initiative," said Kriya Patel, Managing Director, The Bancorp.

Rising Star quotes

Cashwave"Cashwave is pleased to be among the first group of Rising Star technology companies participating in the Catalyst. We are thrilled to be part of the program which we hope will increase visibility for our innovative product among the financial industry as well as end users. We are looking forward to improving our product via access to industry expertise and know-how and valuable partnerships with both industry leaders and other start-ups"
Stoytcho Vlaykov, Founder of Cashwave

Cubits"Cubits is thrilled to be selected as one of the ‘Rising Stars' of the Catalyst initiative. We live in exciting times. Our increasingly connected global society demands safer, faster and cheaper ways to pay. The Emerging Payments Association is a great response to those challenges as the open exchange of ideas can only benefit the industry as a whole. Our specialism, Bitcoin, is a powerful new technology enabling low transaction fees, the elimination of fraud, high security features and instant global money transfers. We believe it has a lot to offer the future payments landscape. As a UK company, Cubits is ready to share and learn, and we hope that our contribution will help make the UK a global leader in payment innovation." 
Tim Rehder, CEO, Cubits

W2 Global Data"The combination of access to an influential network, hot desk facilities in a prime London location and added mentorship struck the right note for a start-up like W2. We fully intend to make the most of the Rising Star opportunities over the next 12 months."
Warren Russell, CEO, W2 Global Data

GPS appoints former Head of Issuing at Optimal Payments PLC

London – May 18th, 2015 – Leading global payments processor Global Processing Services (GPS) today announced that Suresh Vaghjiani will be joining their Senior Management team as Executive Vice President of Card Services.  Suresh commented, “We have all witnessed the growth of GPS globally in recent years and it is certainly exciting to be part of the team tasked with continuing the expansion of our global footprint”.

In his former role as Director of Issuing at Optimal Payments PLC, Suresh successfully established the Issuing and newly formed Card Services division.  Previously, as a founding member of Kalixa Payments Group, in his role as Head of Kalixa Pay, Suresh launched the award winning Kalixa prepaid card across international markets.  Suresh has a substantial understanding of electronic money, throughout its complete value chain from Issuing to Acquiring, with strategic knowledge on what works and does not work in various international markets.

As a member of the UK Contactless Advisory Committee, Suresh worked with TFL to pilot some of the first contactless prepaid products used on the London transport network.  In 2011, Suresh launched the first ever contactless wristwatch in the UK.  This is in addition to being responsible for launching the first App controlled NFC solution for i-phone in Europe.  Suresh is an elected Advisory Board member for the Emerging Payments Association.

GPS was founded in 2007 by the owners of Flex-e-vouchers (FEV).  FEV was one of the pioneers of prepaid Programme Management in Europe and continues to operate successfully today.   FEV’s founders identified weaknesses in prepaid processor capability and decided to launch a second business (GPS) that would provide the flexibility needed to service prepaid Programme Managers worldwide.  GPS is a MasterCard, Visa Inc. and Visa Europe accredited processor.  The platform was built in-house from the ground up and is tailored to prepaid card functionality, utilising the multi-year experience gained from operating one of the largest programme management companies in Europe.

Neil Weeks, Chief Commercial Officer at GPS commented, “Suresh is a well-known and respected industry expert.  We are delighted to announce his appointment to our senior management team”.

Tony Kerr, Chief Executive Officer at GPS added, “Suresh has a depth of product and industry knowledge that is amongst the finest in our sector.  We believe that Suresh will strengthen our executive team, further underpinning our global rollout strategy”.

Ukash CEO David Hunter, steps down as Skrill completes takeover

David Hunter has stepped down as Chief Executive Officer of Ukash after online payment processor Skrill Group completed its previously agreed acquisition of the online cash payments provider.

Skrill first struck a deal to acquire Ukash late last year as part of an effort to boost its paysafecard pre-paid payment service.

Skrill has now completed the deal and will now take ownership of the online cash payments provider.

As a result of the agreement, Hunter, who has served as chief executive officer of Ukash for the last five years, will step down from the role and will now take up a number of non-executive positions with a number of businesses.

David Sear, chief executive officer of Skrill, said: “This is an exciting acquisition that will considerably extend our reach in the high-growth prepayment market, enabling us to support consumers and online businesses alike with the world’s largest online cash replacement payment method.

“I’d like to thank David Hunter, who has been instrumental in the growth of Ukash, which will be integrated with paysafecard.

“As we move towards our combination with Optimal Payments, paysafecard will continue to be a key part of our strategy and of our offering to our customers.”

Skrill Group announces it has completed its acquisition of Ukash

This deal, which was announced in November 2014, extends the scale and reach of Skrill Group’s paysafecard, further enhancing its position as Europe’s most popular, proven and secure prepaid payment solutions for purchasing online.

Since its launch in 2000, paysafecard has provided a way for consumers to get cash online and is widely accepted across a growing number of online industries including online games, social media channels and entertainment sites. It became part of Skrill Group in 2013 and has consistently grown its network of distributors to now consist of more than 480,000 outlets across 39 countries. In 2014, the number of transactions using paysafecard worldwide increased by 26% to over 86 million, equating to 162 uses per minute, highlighting how paysafecard has become an indispensable part of the digital world of today. In combination, paysafecard and Ukash will expand digital payments across both established and emerging markets.

David Hunter, who held the position of chief executive officer at Ukash for five years, is to step down from the company following the completion of the sale. He will take up a number of non-executive positions with a portfolio of businesses.

David Sear, chief executive officer of Skrill Group, commented, “Ukash is a shining example of British business. This is an exciting acquisition that will considerably extend our reach in the high-growth prepayment market, enabling us to support consumers and online businesses alike with the world's largest online cash replacement payment method. I’d like to thank David Hunter, who has been instrumental in the growth of Ukash, which will be integrated with paysafecard. As we move towards our combination with Optimal Payments, paysafecard will continue to be a key part of our strategy and of our offering to our customers.”

New work: Optimal Payments Card Services B2B website

We’re really very pleased to announce the release of our latest mobile-optimised B2B website for Optimal Payments’ new Card Services division: www.optimalcardservices.com

Optimal Payments, one of the biggest names in e-money and emerging payments, recently launched their new Card Services division offering a one-stop solution for fully-customisable prepaid card issuing.

We spent a long time getting to the heart of Card Service’s offering, pulling out the division’s product benefits and features and communicating them in an engaging and user-friendly manner – equally relevant to both newcomers to the payments industry and old hands.

We spent even longer designing and building the “Build Your Card” facility that allows clients to create a complete prepaid card programme online in minutes – and then proceed to place an order.

Visit www.optimalcardservices.com to check out our new work – or if you want to order a few thousand tailor-made MasterCard prepaid cards in less time than it takes to drink a cappuccino.

Read more about the Optimal Card Services website case study, or visit our site at www.fifthdimension.com

Boomtime for Wearable Tech

Unless you have been hiding out on a desert island for the last year, then you will unlikely be surprised by news of the growth in wearable technology. The scale of the growth, up 40% from Q3 2013 according to the latest quarterly research from Futuresource Consulting, however might raise an eyebrow.

Total global shipments for Q3 totalled 12.7million units, with the dominant category being fitness related watches / wristbands connected to smartphones.

"We expect connected watches - incorporating smartwatches and wireless watches - to experience extremely strong growth over the forecast period, reaching 83 million unit shipments in total by 2018," says Oliver Rowntree, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting.

One thing that suprised us reading the reseach, is the lack of any mention of payments. Perhaps it's a case of watch this space?

Read the full article on the Future Source Consulting site

2014 Emerging Payments Awards winners

Fifth Dimension received a special commendation at the 2014 Emerging Payments Awards, for it's work in the prepaid and emerging payments sector.

The awards, now in their 7th year, saw a total of 22 awards announced at a gala dinner held at the London Lancaster Hotel and was attended by the great and the good from related areas of the payments industry including prepaid, gifting, m-POS and mobile.

Some of the winners were overcome with emotion

See the full list of winners from the 2014 Emerging Payments Awards

The 2015 Emerging Payments Awards will be Thursday 15th October 2015 - for more information visit: http://www.emergingpaymentsawards.com

Make it Better day - The Children's Hospital Charity

Today is Make it Better day - organised by The Children's Hospital Charity in Sheffield. You can donate by simply sending a text or donating at www.tchc.org.uk/donate

To donate by phone simply send a text (based on amount you wish to donate) to 70070:

Theo14 £1 
Theo14 £2
Theo14 £5
Theo14 £10
 
And don't forget to complete the Gift Aid, as this ensures they get 25% more!

If TCHC raise £25k today, it will pay for a state of the art children's bedroom.

The Children's Hospital Charity in Sheffield really don't receive the profile that they really should given the huge number of children that they help. Last year, they treated:

1,300 patients from the North & Scotland!
183,000 from Yorks & Humbs!
1,100 from London and surrounding!
1,800 from Merseyside & Manchester!
20,000 from the Midlands!
800 from South West.
40 countries sent us kids last year!

Please donate now at www.tchc.org.uk/donate, or text Theo14 £1 / £2 / £5 / £10 to 70070 and pass this on.

Thanks

UKASH LAUNCHES FREE INSTANT PREPAID MASTERCARD®

Instant sign up, without any credit checks, empowers cash consumers.

Leading online cash payments provider, Ukash, has launched an innovative General Purpose Reloadable (GPR) prepaid card, supported by a mobile app that makes uploading of funds quick and easy. Putting customers in control of their money, the free smartphone app (iPhone and android) makes it easy to check transactions and balances while cardholders are out and about as well as top up their card as soon as they’ve exchanged cash for a Ukash code.

Cash can also be loaded directly onto the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard at UK Post Offices. Marking the launch, Ukash is waiving the card issuance fee until the end of April. The issuance fee - £5 and £9 respectively for the virtual and physical card – is being waived for anyone who applies for the card before the end of April 2014 and loads it with the initial minimum load of £20.

Designed for consumers who are excluded from mainstream banking and credit as well as those who want to control their spend or who are concerned about online fraud, the new Ukash Prepaid MasterCard card is available to anyone regardless of their credit status, and can be used instantly in its online form wherever MasterCard acceptance mark is displayed. Available in four currencies – GBP, EUR, PLN and USD and to residents of 29 countries – it goes to the heart of financial inclusion on a global scale. Uniquely, there are two versions of the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard; an online only card and a physical card. No matter which version of the card is selected, the card number and 3 digit security code are issued instantly for immediate use online as soon as the user loads funds. Customers who opt for a physical card can use the online version of their card until their physical card arrives in the post.

“The Ukash Prepaid MasterCard is designed to break down barriers for a whole swathe of society” explained David Hunter, Chief Executive, Ukash. “From immigrant workers to under 18’s* and consumers with poor credit records, there are a huge number of people who have to rely on cash as their main form of currency for day to day living. For these cash consumers, there are many aspects of society that are out of reach – simply because they don’t have a bank account or credit card. We aim to change that social exclusion with our innovative prepaid card.”

The Ukash Prepaid MasterCard card enables financial inclusion in seconds and, unlike other prepaid cards that are dependent on having access to a bank account to load money, funds can be added to the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard using a Ukash 19 digit code. This can be purchased with cash from the thousands of convenience stores and other outlets selling Ukash globally which, because they often operate outside traditional banking and retail hours, gives consumers real flexibility to load funds and then use their prepaid card just like any other debit or credit card holder. Users can also load their Ukash Prepaid MasterCard with cash at UK Post Offices or arrange for their employer to load their salary to the card each week or month.

In research conducted ahead of the launch of the new Ukash Prepaid MasterCard, it was found that the budgeting benefits of prepaid cards were particularly important to consumers. 42% said the greatest benefit of a prepaid card is the fact that they have control of their spending. And nearly a quarter (23%) said that they felt a prepaid card was particularly useful to help parents teach their children about budgeting.

The Ukash Prepaid MasterCard also addresses the need by many consumer groups to have a simple way to send money to family and friends. With the facility to have a secondary cardholder, the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard is ideal for money sharing between family members or friends. Plus the card to card transfer facility between Ukash Prepaid MasterCard holders enables expats and migrant workers to send money home at just 30p per transaction.

Ukash Prepaid MasterCard® to launch on FD Affiliate Network

We’re very pleased to welcome another big name in emerging payments to the Fifth Dimension e-money affiliate network: the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard.

The Ukash Prepaid MasterCard comes in two flavours: physical and virtual. The physical card’s perfect for shopping in-store and online – anywhere that MasterCard is accepted – whereas the virtual card is the best route to instant online spending, ready for use immediately after sign-up.

The new  Ukash Prepaid MasterCard launches on Fifth Dimension’s affiliate network

Cardholders who sign up for the physical card get a free virtual card to use online while they’re waiting for their card to arrive; combine this with the free smartphone app which facilitates on-the-go top-ups and convenient account management, and the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard becomes an incredibly flexible and attractive product.

But it doesn’t end there: both card types are available in GBP, USD, EUR and PLN, nudging the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard squarely into specialist travel-money card territory. And with the added benefits of a free secondary card and easy transfers between Ukash cardholders, the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard is perfect for sending money to friends and family.

The Ukash Prepaid MasterCard is live in the UK with a Q1 launch in Italy, France, Spain and Poland, with the support of Fifth Dimension’s dedicated e-money affiliate network.

For more information on the Ukash Prepaid MasterCard affiliate programme, or to become an affiliate, please apply via our website.

Londoners on board with contactless bus payments

Transport for London is celebrating the successful implementation of contactless card payments on all of London's 8,500 buses.

Since the service was launched in December 2012, more than 6.5 million London bus journeys have been paid for using contactless American Express, MasterCard or Visa Europe contactless payment cards, the U.K. transit operator said.

Contactless open-loop cards can be used in addition to TFL's existing proprietary contactless Oyster cards, if customers don't have an Oyster card or have run out of credit on their Oyster card. Tickets bought with contactless cards cost less than cash tickets.

TFL said it will launch contactless card payments in its wider transit network in 2014 for journeys on over-ground and underground trains. Following the full rollout, TFL said it will become one of the world's largest single merchants accepting contactless cards.

"It is fantastic that so many people are taking advantage of the ease and convenience of using their contactless payment cards to pay their bus fares," Shashi Verma, TFL's director of customer experience, said in a news release. "Each week we are setting a new record for usage, which gives us great confidence for when we launch contactless payments on the rest of the network and make contactless fully integrated in 2014."





TFL stresses the need for customer education when introducing a new ticketing system, and said it continues to remind customers about presenting their Oyster or contactless payment cards separately to buses' yellow card readers. If two cards are touched together, there is no risk of double payment, TFL said, but the payment might be taken from the card that the customer did not intend to use.

TFL said there have been no technical issues since its contactless payment system launched, and refund requests for charges made to the wrong card have averaged less than three per day, out of around 4 million daily bus journeys paid for on Oyster.

The company said it is working closely with the payments industry to prepare for the next phase of its contactless card rollout to trains. A pilot will take place over the next few months to test contactless payments on TFL’s train networks.

Source: Mobile Payments Today 

The importance of conversion in prepaid programmes

At Fifth Dimension we regularly talk about “conversion ratios” – almost to the point of being boring. But we think it’s for good reason, and here’s why. 

Firstly, it's hard work generating new customers in most sectors and this is especially true for prepaid card and electronic money programmes. With budgets being continually scrutinised then the level at which you can convert prospects to customers has never been more important.

So how we do measure it?

Conversion ratio % =	number of new customers
	number of website visitors

The graph below shows the number of new customers generated from 20k monthly visits, according to different on-site conversion ratios.

So a programme with 3% conversion will generate 600 new customers per month, whereas a programme with a 6% conversion will generate 1,200 new customers.

We think that’s quite a sizeable difference given what appears to be only a small change in conversion %. But to highlight this further, let’s look at the impact of not improving the performance? The chart below shows that if we wish to still deliver the 1,200 new customers per month at a conversion ratio of 3%, then a programme will also need to double its traffic to 40,000 visitors!

Regardless of how you generate it, that is a lot of new traffic to deliver and is considerably more expensive than optimising your current performance.

We think it's a no-brainer. If you do to, and would like help in measuring and improving the conversion for your current programme, then get in touch with Phil Campbell via phil@fifthdimension.com

Moneto affiliate programme launches

Following from our recent announcement about the launch of Moneto in the UK, we're pleased to announce the launch of their affiliate programme. If you're not sure who or what Moneto is, then take a look at their site, and read on.

We just love the ease of paying with Moneto!

 Being in marketing it's easy to overdo hyperboles, but in this case we're entirely justified in saying that Moneto is quite simply THE coolest way to buy your coffee, lunch, paper or beer - in fact anywhere that accepts contactless: you just tap your smartphone and you're done.

You get a balance update to let you know how much cash you have left, you're out of the queues in no time, leaving a blaze of bemused store assistants and jealous customers behind you!

For affiliates, you can make up to £15 per sale and here at  Fifth Dimension we'll get you up and running within 24 hours so you can start earning money.

So what's not to love? If you're an affiliate, then just complete our application form or contact your account manager. If you're a drooling techie....then just hop over to the Moneto site and make your choice - you could be making payments with your phone in 72 hours!

Not another award nomination!!

The finalists of the 2013 Prepaid and Emerging Payments Awards have been announced and Fifth Dimension is delighted to be shortlisted for Best Service Provide.

It's been an interesting year for both the industry and Fifth Dimension - we're seeing a significant growth in the mobile POS market with an abundance of new entrants such as PayPal and WorldPay joining the likes of iZettle, mPowa and Payleven - but with such similar propositions, one issue for users will be how to choose between them?

As a company we've developed our affiliate business, driving more sales for clients than larger affiliate networks in UK, Germany, Austria and Italy.

But while new customers is an obvious welcome, this is worth little without being able to grow the value in your customer base and build the customer lifetime value. We see too few programmes really tackle this and as a result feel this is an area where we can really help our clients, through data insight, clear segmentation and good CRM.

It's this combination of driving customer acquisition and developing profitable programmes that has resulted in our most recent nomination. We're proud to have been shortlisted again and are looking forward to the awards dinner on the 2nd October at London's Lancaster Hotel. We hope to see friends there and wish our clients, colleagues and all who entered the awards, success on the night.

Moneto launches in the UK

Fifth Dimension is pleased to announce the launch of Moneto in the UK – promising to bring faster, more convenient payments to your mobile phone.

Moneto is the brainchild of US based Device Fidelity, and neatly converts smart phones into NFC enabled devices – either through a case for Apple’s iPhone, or direct with a replaceable MicroSD card for Android devices. The accompany app then provides access to an electronic wallet which allows for payments simply by tapping the phone to a contactless reader in store.

Moneto allows users to convert their smart phone to a contactless payment device!

For online transactions or where retailers do not support contactless, then an accompanying prepaid MasterCard allows the user to make their payment – with funds being accessed from the same account.

Moneto has partnered with UK based issuer, Kalixa, to provide the prepaid MasterCard and e-wallet that sits behind the Moneto app.

What we think is best about the concept is the pure simplicity of it. There’s been much hype about NFC and mobile payments and while there are plans among some mobile operators to enable similar technology, Moneto is truly agnostic. So regardless of who you bank with, or your mobile contract, you can simply buy your case and Moneto card and start making payments immediately.

To find out more, visit: www.moneto.co.uk

How to Increase Affiliate Sales by 75%

Affiliate marketing is an essential part of today’s digital marketing strategy, largely because your affiliates understand your market, providing you the opportunity to reach out to a highly-defined target group, receptive to your message.

With affiliates being financially motivated to sell your products by earning a commission, they are quickly responsive to evolving products and changing market conditions, giving you online prominence via websites, blogs and social channels.

The benefits of affiliate marketing are clear, with a low risk and pay-on-results marketing model, it offers a solid return on investment without any nasty surprises at the end of the month.

There are a number of global affiliate networks around, such as Commission Junction, Tradedoubler or affilinet – to name but a few. They all are big players, excellent global networks with hundreds of affiliate programmes and thousands of publishers; so how is it possible for a much smaller Affiliate Network such as our very own Fifth Dimension Affiliate Tracking, to generate significantly better results than these top networks, and to consistently achieve up to 75% more sales every month?

The answer is simple: because we focus on a niche area and put all our efforts into marketing emerging payments products (including prepaid cards, m-wallets and mPOS devices), putting all our energy into finding the right affiliates to push your sales.

Whilst big players often get caught up in the variety of their affiliate programmes (by trying to cover all industries and products at the same time) they often lack the insight and expertise in defined sectors such as emerging payments. By focusing on one market only, we know the right people and can develop suitable promotions with them to boost your sales.

As a result of managing close relationships with the emerging payments industry, our FD Affiliate Tracking can be much more effective than many of the top affiliate networks. For example, with clients, who operate across multiple affiliate networks, Fifth Dimension outperforms the next best network by more than 75%:

Fifth Dimension outperforms other larger affiliate networks
within prepaid and emerging payments

In fact, in the above graph which shows the prepaid MasterCard sales for one of our clients during February 2013, we even out-performed the next best global affiliate network by almost 100%!

We don’t want to promise too much, but if you’re in emerging payments – as an advertiser or a publisher - you should definitely get in touch with our Affiliate Management Team!

Amazon Coins It In

On Tuesday, Amazon announced the impending launch of Amazon Coins, their own virtual currency for apps and in-app purchases on their Kindle Fire. Everybody’s talking about it; it’s almost like a proper news story, not just another e-money-related announcement.

It’s being presented to app developers as “another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads, and increase monetization”, with no integration required – and they’ll get paid the same 70% revenue share whether the customer chooses to use Coins or their own money. Irresistible.

In a dramatic display of aggressive (virtual) monetary expansion, Amazon will be giving away “tens of millions of dollars” worth of Coins when they’re launched in the US in May, each Coin being worth one cent. Theoretically, this will increase the consumption of Kindle Fire content which will, in turn, stimulate investment into said content by the aforementioned third-party developers. Long-term, this will have the effect of strengthening the Kindle Fire platform, helping it compete against Apple and Google. Nice.

However, what’s so far unclear is what happens when Kindle Fire customers have spent their free “money”. There will have to be a way to get Coins back into the virtual economy, and the only possible options will be to buy them (which’ll be great for Amazon by making the acceptance of micro-purchases cheaper and easier to manage), or “earn” them by doing really, really, really well in Angry Birds. For example.

It might well be the case that those in-app coins in Temple Run (that you can never seem to get enough of because you’re genuinely a little bit scared of being caught by the flesh-eating demon monkeys chasing you, and end up ignoring them in favour of avoiding having your head taken off by a poorly-placed tree), might turn out to be really worth something, if they can be used to buy Amazon Coins. Well, worth something in the Kindle Fire ecosystem, anyway.

Where it will get interesting is if and when Amazon releases their Coins from the confines of the Kindle Fire environment and accepts them as currency in the wider Amazon ecosystem, allowing customers to buy physical goods with them. And Amazon pretty much sells everything these days, so will we soon find kids spending all their waking hours on Kindle Fire games, sucking up those in-app rewards and converting them to Amazon Coins – and then spending them on whatever they like on Amazon.com? If that’s the case, then in effect almost every ten year old with access to a Kindle Fire will soon be pulling in more than I do each month. But I’ll be having the last laugh, because at least I won’t have RSI, and I’ll be able to leave the house without my mum and spend my hard-earned in HMV if I want.