Plexian: Overcoming barriers for debit cards.

One of their many offerings includes a full-fledged payment solution. In the past, transferring money to, or “topping up”, their debit card has not been that straightforward. Swedish mobile payment solution Swish would not work for this, and using cards to top-up another card was not a solution Plexian was fully happy with.

The cost for a money transfer was not something the end-user would notice, instead, Plexian took that cost all on themselves, eating away at their margins. With plenty of cards in use, it becomes a very large cost. Although it was easy to implement, it was never considered a future-proof solution. That’s why Plexian decided to investigate alternative solutions.

Making sure that the end-user always has coverage on their debit card is important to make them feel secure and increase the usage of the card. So, adding funds to the card should not feel like a transaction or a purchase.

It’s not only cheaper and easier than a card-to-card payment, it also resembles more regular bank transfers where users transfers money from ie. a savings account to a spending account. Making the switch over to a bank transfer is the first step in future Finshark integrations for Plexian.

Right now, Plexian are using Finshark’s Direct payments to let users transfer money to their debit card. Going forward, it might not end there! The possibilities with Open banking, both AIS (account information service) and PIS (payment information service), are great. Users could potentially “top-up” their cards in a Point of Sales (POS) terminal, transfer money through a text message when funds are low, or automatically transfer money on recurring basis.

Two of Finshark’s founders, Adnan Sporo and Kristian Sternros, met with Plexian early on in their process. Plexian got a solid impression where they saw the stability of the business, but at the same time valued Finshark’s small size. It felt good from day one.