At a time when there is a lot of talk about digital payments and cashback , I decided to try a payment app for two weeks : Satispay . An all-Italian e-payment and micropayment system, which can be downloaded to your smartphone (both iOS and Android).
In this post I talk about the advantages that – in my opinion – a payment app like this has, after having tried it in everyday life.
How Satispay works
But let’s start with the basics. How does Satispay work ? First you need to download the application on your smartphone, then register your account. At this point, to start using the payment system, you need to send a valid identity document and connect your current whatsapp marketing service account to the app. The authorization will arrive shortly, a few days at most.
Once this is done, we are ready to use Satispay. The first step is to determine the budget , that is, how much money we want to have on the app each week: 25, 50, 75, 100 euros. Satispay will withdraw the amount from our current account and make it available every Sunday. The very first withdrawal will take a few days.
The application updates based on our location and therefore the main screen will show us from time to time all the businesses near us where it is possible to pay with this means.
But Satispay is not just an app for payments to businesses. The system also allows you to exchange money with friends and therefore to receive, not just spend. And so, in the same way, if we have received payments and therefore on Sunday we have more money than the budget, Satispay will pay the extra money into our current account.
Here’s how Satispay works. Let’s see how it was useful to me in these two weeks of testing.
I wasted less time
Even before trying Satispay, I had almost abandoned the use of cash because I have always found it more convenient to use a debit or credit card. Contactless pirates arrive in the pastry shop and the desserts has then sped up everything even more. Only for many small expenses I have always been forced to carry notes or coins because paying with a credit card was excessive or it was not accepted at all. Satispay has solved this problem and for me it has been a great time saver . No more stops at the ATM (I know it’s not serious, but for me it has always been a pain), no more euros and cents scattered in the pockets of jackets and trousers and no more swearing for change made up entirely of coins.
But most importantly, I paid the motorcycle tax . Finally! I don’t even remember how long ago I had to do it. With the app, I simply had to add the vehicle’s license plate and pay. Zero time wasted.
I also tried to pay a bill , because I was very curious. And I must say that I just had to frame the bill with my smartphone camera and in a few taps it was done.
I saved
How many times I would have liked to have a “little drawer” inside my current account to regularly put a small sum, so that later on I would have a nice amount set aside. All of this obviously without having to tie up the money. With Satispay we can create our own piggy bank and give it the rules we want.
First we have to tell him how much he has to put aside each week from the budget we have on the application. We can in fact choose a small amount to have him put into the piggy bank on Sunday, before the budget recharges.
The second saving function, the one I like the most, concerns cents. Let me explain: we can tell Satispay to round up our excess expenses and put aside the extra cents . So, if we have activated the option, when we make a purchase of 1.80 euros the app will automatically pay 20 cents into our piggy bank.
The third way to save some money is cashback , but we’ll look at that in the next point.
I saved #2
Cashback is a term that we hear very often now. What is it? Cashback allows us to get back a part of the money spent. We are talking about small percentages, but not very small, which put together are still a saving. And as such they should not be underestimated.
Every morning, for example, I pay for a croissant at the bar and I get a cent of cashback. What do I do with a cent? Nothing, I put it in the app’s piggy bank. I don’t get rich, but multiplied by all the days and all the transactions I make with the Satispay app, it’s a figure that shouldn’t be overlooked. Without forgetting that there are businesses that, depending on the day, even get a cashback of 10-12%. Does getting back one euro out of ten spent make us feel so bad?
From the Satispay home screen we can immediately see if the shop/bar/restaurant we are in practices cashback and how much. We can also filter the results to see only the businesses that do so.
I no longer have credits/debts with friends
More or less, we have all gone through the “drama” of having to divide the cost of a gift for a colleague or the bill of the restaurant where we went with friends fans data among 10-15 people. With Satispay I got rid of this thought, because the app allows you to send and request payments to your contacts. In a few seconds, the so-called “pending accounts” are paid.
Other things you can do with Satispay, but I haven’t personally tried:
- Pay for online purchases, but unfortunately not on Amazon
- Top up your phone: cashback is also available in this case
In conclusion, I tried this payment app mostly out of curiosity.
State Cashback
I add an update from the last few weeks. The State is launching a cashback plan that favors digital payments and that could bring a little extra money into the pockets of those who use tools like this. The argument is always the same: you don’t get rich, but why turn down certain opportunities?
