As a reader of Payments:Unpacked you will know that payment systems are vital to the UK economy and play a remarkable role in ensuring that payment for the goods and services we all consume are efficient, safe, resilient and friction-free.
One remaining area of payment friction is actually asking someone for some money to settle up for a meal out or after a night on the town. Having asked for the money you then have to provide your bank details and hope that your friend will then get it together to actually send the money from their bank account.
As we say goodbye to the UK’s Paym let’s take a look across the North Sea and see how the Dutch have solved a way to “pay ‘em” – with a Tikkie.
“Pay ‘em”, “Pay Them”
Since its launch back in 2014 Paym has hardly become a household name in the UK so here’s a quick reminder…..
Paym is (but soon to be “was”) a mobile payment system operated by Pay.UK and offered by the majority of the UK’s banks and building societies. Recipients are identified by their mobile phone number rather than their bank sort code and account number.
It’s a fast, free and easy way to make or receive payments from friends, family members or even customers and clients. All someone needs to send your payment through is a mobile number.
Paym
As the Paym service is consigned to the Payments Museum of Curiosity you’ll find a quick resume of the service here: So long Paym, we hardly knew you.
If we contrast the UK’s Paym service with the Dutch “Tikkie” service we will unpack a very different story.
Don’t worry about it, I’ll Tikkie you
Contributing to a high chair for a baby shower, sorting out a bill at Nando’s or splitting up the costs of a weekend away can be a real pain.
The residents of the Netherlands have been presented with an antidote to this pain – in the form of ABN Amro’s “Tikkie”.
Tikkie is s a free app for iPhone and Android. It’s a convenient way of sending payment requests to family or friends. Payments are processed through iDEAL and the user’s own bank.
The app’s available to anyone with a bank account in the Netherlands. Tikkie may have been created by ABN AMRO, but all Dutch banking customers are welcome to use it – and it is free to use!
Three Tikkie facts
Tikkie’s for everyone
All you need to send a payment request is the Tikkie app on your smartphone and a Dutch bank account. You don’t even have to install the app to pay a request that you receive.
Send a payment request via the app
Creating a payment request is easy using the Tikkie app. Enter the amount and what it’s for, then share the payment link via WhatsApp, text message, email or however you like.
You can also use a QR code
Use a Tikkie QR code instead of a payment link to request payment. The QR code can be scanned with the Tikkie app or a QR app. Handy when the person paying isn’t in your contact list.
What is Tikkie?
Listen to the students of the University College Roosevelt describing Tikkie.
8 Million active users and 16 billion euros
By the summer of 2022 Tikkie had grown to 8 million active users and had processed 16 billion users since launch.
….our Tikkie app recorded eight million users this summer. We’re very proud that Tikkie has become part of everyday life for half the country, totalling 16 billion euros worth of payments since day one…..You can simply settle up with a Tikkie. So the good times you shared can end on a good note too.
Roger Brinker
Powered by ABN AMRO designed by Nelleke Harmse
Grab a cup of coffee (spoiler alert: the video is 55 minutes long so you’ll need the coffee) and watch the Tikkie designer take you behind the scenes.
Oh, and Nelleke promises that we’ll find out how The Hoff helped Tikkie get to 6 million users (it’s now 8 million!) – Tikkie’s Secret Sauce.
‘Groepie’ functionality for settling group spending
Launched as a MVP in 2016 the Tikkie app has seen a number of innovative enhancements – one of these is ‘Groepie’, a smart feature that allows multiple users to track and settle costs incurred as a group, greatly simplifying group payments made through Tikkie.
This (one minute) advert is in Dutch but you’ll get the drift on the benefits of Groepie:
The new feature is quick and easy to use: in a few simple steps you create a Groepie in the Tikkie app where members of the group can share their costs. You can invite members in various ways including by WhatsApp. Tikkie takes care of the maths, so you never have to deal with squabbles about money or do sums on the back of a beer mat again.
As Tikkie’s Roger Brinker explains:
Tikkie is often used for settling amounts that one person has paid up front. With Groepie, it’s now possible to track and settle shared costs — an incredibly useful feature that many of our users have been calling for. This is borne out by Tikkie’s own data. More and more of the payment descriptions refer to things like ‘weekend away’, ‘baby shower’, ‘groceries’ and so on. From now on those costs can be settled very simply in Groepie.
With Groepie you can track any kind of shared costs and see who owes each other what at the end of the day. This comes in handy for one-off events as well as long-term spending, such as keeping track of the shared costs incurred within a household. Students sharing accommodation will no longer need to rack their brains to divide up the costs each of them has fronted.
Thanks to Tikkie’s new feature, misunderstandings about money will be a thing of the past and all users can see real-time the costs entered in a Groepie. So everyone can put money in the kitty and settling up will no longer be a headache.
…..and finally
Gelukt thx!
You can even set up your own thank you GIF
