Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:04

Using a prepaid Visa debit card Romanians can now send money from their mobile.

The Raiffeisen Bank Visa Prepaid Card allows Romanians to send money domestically from their mobile phones and is the first prepaid debit card on the Romanian market issued by a banking institution.

Currently the card is only available at selected Raiffeisen Bank branches in Bucharest which will roll out to be available directly from merchants soon. The card costs 18 RON. While sending money through the mobile phone is free, a 2 RON charge +1% is applied per transaction to receive the funds.

Designed for young and cash-based Romanians who are online, cardholders who buy and load cash on the card can shop online, make purchases anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted, withdraw cash from ATMs worldwide and use the integrated YAP mobile service to send money domestically to friends and family or check balances from their mobile phones with a simple text message. They can also manage their accounts online.

The text messages from the service use randomly chosen short-code numbers intended to prevent anyone from tracking the information about a person's your bank balance, transactions and PIN.

Dublin based RêvEurope developed and promotes the Raiffeisen Bank Prepaid Visa Card and provides the distribution and processing platform. Through a global agreement with MPOWER Mobile, a sister company, RêvEurope powers the card’s integrated YAP mobile service.