BC Card's Paybooc app offers convenient payment options

BC Card's Paybooc app provides QR code payment through mobile devices. / Courtesy of BC Card

As COVID-19 forces in a new lifestyle that minimizes direct human contact, card companies are coming up with more innovative and convenient automatic payment methods using mobile apps. BC Card's Paybooc enables customers to make payments with a few simple taps on their mobile devices.

Using QR codes, customers can pay at stores without having to pick up their credit cards. For instance, they can enter into a pilot GS25 convenience store in the Euljiro District, central Seoul, which is operated with unmanned checkout counters, using the app's QR code. Once inside the store, customers can pick products and simply walk out of the store; the payment is automatic through a pre-registered BC Card connected with the app.

Baskin-Robbins' “Happy Station,” which has an unattended cash register, also supports the automatic QR code payment of the app. At branches of the ice cream brand where Happy Station is set up, customers can order and pay without having to interact with workers.

The QR code payment is available at various other stores, including a few branches of Lotte Department Store, and will be in wider use at more shops by the end of this year.

During the first quarter of this year, QR code payments in Korea increased by 2.18 percent in the total transactions, and has risen by 7.02 percent each month.