Visa Europe unleashes V.me service upon UK banks and retailers

Visa Logo on top of map of Europe

Payment technology giant Visa Europe hasannounced that its online purchasing platform V.me will soon become available to all cardholders within the UK, after a new agreement between Britain’s major banks was secured.

Although the V.me platform has existed since November 2013, UK cardholders will now fully be able to reap its benefits. By the end of 2015, V.me will be commercially available to the majority of internet shoppers in the UK, as banks and retailers plan on rolling out the service in June.

V.me is a service that allows its users to save their debit and credit card details online, making it easier and more accessible to repeatedly buy goods from online merchants. Although this is a simple idea, it’s certainly an essential one.

Over 68 per cent of online transactions are abandoned at the checkout, most likely due to the tedious process of continually adding payment details.

This announcement coincides with an agreement between Visa Europe and 55 per cent of Britain’s card issuers, a group that has 60 million cardholders in its ranks.

‘‘We’re extremely proud to announce the commercial launch and widespread availability of V.me by Visa in the UK. We think that the V.me digital payment service is as important for the online environment as contactless is in the face-to-face environment,’’ commented Wendy Martin, executive director, V.me by Visa.

The agreement also extends to British retail giant Arcadia group, which own Topshop, Topman and Dorothy Perkins among many others. Iceland, Bathstore and Costco.co.uk have also agreed to integrate v.me into their online systems.

‘‘The UK is the European leader of online commerce with a valuable and diverse range of companies that conduct business online. This announcement is a further proof point of our ability to innovate, building on our market success in contactless,’’ said Kevin Jenkins, managing director UK & Ireland at Visa Europe.

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