ComfortDelgro Taxis Suspends Physical Credit Card Payments Due to Wirecard’s Closure in S’pore

Credit and debit cards have made life a whole lot easier.

Gone are the days where you have to reach into your wallet and count the exact change required for your cab ride fee, a task made impossible if you had gone drinking with your friends the entire night.

Nowadays, all you have to do is swipe or tap a card, collect your receipt, and get on with your day.

Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen closure, you won’t be able to use your beloved credit cards for some time if you take a certain cab.

ComfortDelgro Taxis Suspends Physical Credit Card Payments Due to Wirecard’s Closure in S’pore

All ComfortDelGro taxis have suspended payment with physical credit cards ahead of Wirecard’s closure.

Wirecard, the transport conglomerate’s payment processing service, announced earlier that it will cease operations in November this year.

ComfortDelGro also imposed the suspension as Wirecard encountered a “major service disruption” on Monday (27 Sep).

Cabbies with the company were informed that a “not approved” message will be displayed on their mobile display terminal if they try to process a credit card payment.

The suspension is expected to extend into 2022, meaning those with  Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners, and JCB credit cards will not be able to use their cards for payment for at least another two months.

How to Pay? 

Fortunately, there are several other methods of payment that will still be accepted when you take a Comfort taxi.

For one, if you book your Comfort cab through the ComfortDelGro Taxi booking app, you can still use accepted credit cards via the “Pay for Street Hail” option.

No administration fees will be charged for this in-app payment.

Alternatively, passengers can use Cabcharge, Nets, Nets QR, Nets Flashpay, Dash, Alipay, and UnionPay to pay for their ride.

And, of course, there’s always cash.

New Cashless Payment Terminals For Comfort Cabs in 2022

The good news is that new cashless payment terminals will soon be rolled out in early 2022.

These new terminals will be able to accept physical credit cards.

What Happened to Wirecard?

In September last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) ordered Wirecard to cease its payment services here in Singapore, three months after the financial services provider filed for insolvency.

Trouble started after a whistleblower alleged that an employee had committed accounting breaches.

At the time, MAS also directed Wirecard to return all funds to customers within two weeks.

Read Also: 

Featured Image: Dr David Sing / Shutterstock.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *