In the last year, especially if you live in a big city, you may have found yourself queuing at the cash desk behind someone – in a restaurant, bar, or shop – who, instead of paying in cash or with a credit card, was paying. fumbling on your smartphone. If the bar or shop in question displayed a red diamond-shaped symbol, it is likely that you have seen a payment through Satispay, an electronic payment service that works through a smartphone app.
Satispay has existed since 2013, but the service has had some success for about three years. According to the data released by Satispay, users are about 550 thousand, distributed fairly evenly throughout Italy, albeit with a foreseeable concentration in large urban centers. Most users are between 22 and 45 years old, men are the majority, but female users use the service more often. The company explains that on average a user makes 6 to 8 operations per month with the app, and that the average for each transaction is around 18 euros.
The editor of the Post who uses Satispay says she is satisfied above all with the way in which the app simplifies the passage of money when you have to split the bill at dinners, and in general when you have to return small amounts between friends. The company, on the other hand, explains that the most common operations are those of payment in shops and restaurants, even if the function that allows you to set aside a little money at a time (we get to it) is now used routinely by about 70 thousand users.
There are also about 70 thousand shopkeepers who accept it as a payment system. For retailers, there is an incentive to use it, especially with respect to payments by credit or debit card: Satispay does not require commissions for all transactions of less than 10 euros, while for transactions over 10 euros the commission is fixed at 20. cents, regardless of the amount. Furthermore, with the cashback system (even here, we get to it) shopkeepers and restaurateurs can entice users to go to them by offering a discount.
From the point of view of activation, account management and available functions, Satispay has some other peculiarities. We have put them in order, for those interested in using the app or understanding how it works.
What documents are needed to create a Satispay account
To create an account you need an identity document, the tax code and the IBAN code of your current account. The IBAN is needed because the Satispay app is connected to your current account, not to a credit card: it is the main feature that distinguishes it from other payment or financial management apps. You also need an email address and a smartphone, of course. With the data at your fingertips, you need to download and install the Satispay app, open it and follow the instructions (you can also start here). The wizard is very simple: it requires you to enter your data and photograph your identity document (eye: you have to do it following some criteria).
The app will ask you if you want to enter a promo code. By entering the ILPOST code you will receive a “welcome bonus” of 5 euros. But if you prefer, you can also enter the code of some of your friends who already have Satispay.
Each user can have only one Satispay account, but there is the possibility to change both the IBAN, the email address and the telephone number you have associated with your account, in case you need to change them.
It takes some time to activate
Please note that Satispay activation is not immediate. Once the registration is complete, a few days will pass before you can use all the functions of the app: Satispay will have to do some checks. Basically, Satispay will check the data you have entered together with your bank, to prevent anyone from providing false information and using the app improperly. It takes three to five working days for Satispay to carry out the necessary checks. In those five days you will not be able to send and receive money, but you can get an idea of how the app works, because you will already have access to its different sections. In the days following registration, keep an eye on both the app and your mailbox, because Satispay will write to you if it needs further documentation (generally no, anyway).
Verification of the Satispay account
Once Satispay has done all its checks, you will receive a notification on the app, and instructions to proceed with the activation. At this point something will happen that may seem a bit strange and complicated, but it is a necessary step of activation: Satispay will send two small transfers (very small: cents) to your current account to verify your IBAN code. You will have to go and check the movements of your current account (on home banking or at your bank), identify the two small transfers, then open the Satispay app and enter the amount of the two small transfers on the page that requests it. If you don't see your wire transfers right away, that's normal, you'll have to wait another day or two.
Once you have entered the amounts of the two transfers, your account will be verified.
Budget and availability
If you want to use Satispay to actually pay for something, or to send money to your friends, you need to set your budget. The budget is the amount of money you want to have available each week on Satispay. The “availability” is the residual credit, as you can guess. If you set a budget of 50 euros, for example, does this mean that Satispay will withdraw 50 euros from your account every week? No. The first time you set the weekly budget – 50 euros, let's say – Satispay will withdraw it from your account, but the subsequent transfers of money between the app and your account will depend on your movements on Satispay.
On Sunday evening, in fact, Satispay “adjusts” the availability and makes it equal to the budget you had set. Let's go back to our example and let's say that you have set a budget of 50 euros: if you spent 12 during the week, there are 38 left. On Sunday evening, Satispay will take 12 from your account, to return you to 50 euros. If, on the other hand, during the week you have received payments (from your friends, for example) and you have reached – let's say – 86 euros, Satispay will credit your account with the 36 euros in excess and will return you to 50. If you have spent zero and so you still have an availability of 50 euros, there will be no transfers.
If you run out of availability (ie you run out of money on the app) during the week you will not be able to “recharge” it: you will have to wait for the recharge which takes place automatically on Sunday evening. If you often run out of money, however, you can decide to change the budget, increasing it. The maximum budget that you can automatically set is 200 euros, but you can apply to Satispay to exceed that amount too (to do so you will have to fill in this form, but the authorization is at Satispay's discretion). Finally, if you no longer want to use Satispay and want to put the money you have on the app back in the bank, set the budget to zero: on Sunday evening, the residual credit you have on the app will be transferred to your account. After that, you can deactivate the account.
What can you pay with Satispay?
From the moment you have set the budget and therefore have an availability, you can start making payments with Satispay. The operations you can do with Satispay can be divided into three categories:
– You can send money directly to a person registered with Satispay that you have in your contacts. In the “Contacts” section, Satispay shows you the people in your address book who are subscribed to the service. If you want to send a payment to a person you don't have in your address book, you can also add it only on Satispay.
– You can make payments in shops, restaurants, supermarkets (but also cinemas, and vending machines, for example) that offer the possibility to pay with Satispay. In the “Shops” section of the app, you can see which ones are in the area you are in: you can filter them by categories and view those that make Cashbacks (here we are). Here is the map of all the affiliated activities.
– From the “Services” section of the app you can make a phone top-up, pay a bulletin (those of fines, for example) or car and motorbike tax, make a donation or pay a public administration bulletin (PagoPA).
From the “Services” section you can also access two additional functions: “Savings”, which allows you to create a “Piggy bank” in which to set aside – automatically – a little money every day, week or month, and “Envelope gift “, which allows you to send a certain amount of money to another user, establishing a specific day on which the user can” open the envelope “.
There is also the possibility of paying with Satispay on some e-commerce sites. For the moment there are still few, here you will find a selection.
How to pay between individuals
Payment between individuals is very intuitive. Go to the “Contacts” section and choose the person you want to send money to. A numeric keypad will appear, with which to type the amount to be sent to the person you have chosen. Once the amount has been established, select “Send”: the other person will receive the amount you sent, which will be deducted from your availability. The payment will be tracked in the “Profile” section, where there is the history of all the operations of your account.
How to pay with Satispay in shops and restaurants
To pay in a shop or restaurant, you must first of all be sure that it has an agreement with Satispay. If you found it in the list in the “Shops” section, it is for sure. Payment in shops, for the rest, is very similar to that between private individuals. When it's your turn at the cashier, the cashier will tell you how much you have to pay: click on “Shops”, select the name of the shop or restaurant you are in, set the amount and send it. The cashier will see your shipment, but will have to accept it from the cashier for the payment to go through. When it has done so, you will receive a confirmation notification, your availability will be updated and you can view the payment receipt in the “Profile” section of the app. At the automatic tills of some large supermarkets your consignment is automatically accepted.
Another way to pay in stores is to use the store's QR code, if they have one displayed at the checkout. Just go to “Shops”, and click on the QR code symbol at the bottom right: the camera will be activated. Scan the QR code at the cash desk, enter the amount and send it. Also in this case, the payment will remain track in the “Profile” section. If you made a payment to a shop by mistake, you can contact them and request a cancellation.
Payments in the “Services” area
From the “Services” area, as we said, it is possible, among other things, to pay bills, including from the public administration, and car and motorcycle tax. To pay a bulletin simply click on “Bulletin” and frame the bulletin entirely. If the automatic recognition does not work, you have to click on “Continue” and enter the data manually following the instructions (they are quite clear). The same procedure is followed for the Public Administration bulletins, even if in that case you have to frame the QR code on the bulletin. To pay the vehicle tax, however, you must select the type of vehicle, enter the license plate number and proceed with the payment. Receipts for all payments can be found in the “Profile” section of the app.
Finally, what are “cashbacks”?
Opening the Shops section you will immediately notice that under the name of some restaurants and shops it says “cashback”, followed by a percentage or a figure in euros. Cashbacks are actually discounts (in the sense that the end result is that you pay a little less than you should), but they work differently. Instead of paying less directly, you will pay the full amount, and at the end of the transaction, part of the amount is returned to you credited. In retrospect, then. For example, if you go to a restaurant that offers 10 percent cashback, you will pay for your dinner at full price, but as soon as you send the payment, 10 percent of what you spent will be credited back. In practice, in the end, you will have spent 10 percent less, but at the time of payment you will still have to have an availability on Satispay equal to the full price: the refund will come later.
Cashbacks are promotional tools for Satispay and for the shops that choose to use them. You will notice that for some cashbacks there is a maximum refund limit. To be clear: if a shop has a 10 percent cashback but a maximum refund limit of 80 euros, even if you spent 1000 euros, you would not get a refund of 100 euros but still 80. Cashbacks can be of different types: there are those with a fixed amount and those with a percentage, those in which the costs of the reimbursement you receive are covered by Satispay and those in which the cashback is borne by the merchants, those equal for all users and incremental ones.
The incremental ones are made to build customer loyalty: a restaurant, for example, could offer 10 percent cashback the first time you go there and pay with Satispay, and 15 percent cashback the next time. Furthermore, cashbacks are “campaigns” with a duration over time, so if a shop establishes that the maximum reimbursement cap received by each user for that specific campaign must be, for example 20 euros, if you have already paid in that shop and see you re-credited 20 euros (at one time or in total), the cashback will no longer be available for you.
For these reasons, two people who open the app in the same area and at the same time could still see completely different cashbacks.
In some periods, cashbacks are also provided for telephone top-ups.
Disclaimer: we repeat it even if you probably already understood it, the Post has an affiliation with Satispay and gets a small revenue if you decide to try the app starting from this link and / or entering the promo code ILPOST.
