Hawkers get same-day e-payment with Nets

Ms Tham Mei Leng, 50, runs a Western food stall at Block 724 Ang Mo Kio Food Centre and has a Nets payment terminal for customers to use.

She used to worry that she might not receive her e-payments as she had to wait until the next working day before seeing the money in her bank account.

That changed yesterday.

From yesterday, hawkers will receive sales proceeds from Nets payments on the same day, even on weekends and public holidays.

Same-day settlements will apply to stalls in hawker centres, coffee shops and canteens, and no special arrangements are needed.

Other merchants that use Nets' services will still have to wait one working day before their transactions are settled.

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Nets, owned by DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank, said it hopes the move will encourage more hawkers to adopt e-payments.

Nets head of sales Ang Sok Hong said: "Stallholders will be able to settle supplier payments and other business expenses more easily."

Previously, Nets payments were settled within one business day if they were made before 11pm.

Now, for hawkers, Nets transactions made before 5pm will be credited to their DBS, OCBC or UOB accounts by 11pm on the same day. This includes Quick Response code payments via DBS PayLah!, OCBC Pay Anyone and UOB Mighty but excludes CashCard and Nets FlashPay transactions.

For transactions made after 5pm, hawkers will receive the money before 9am the next day.

The move will benefit more than 4,000 hawker stallholders here that accept Nets payments.

Nets was appointed last September to unify e-payments under a single system for hawkers operating under the Housing Board, National Environment Agency and JTC Corporation.

Under the system, 20 payment schemes, ranging from e-wallets like Singtel Dash and GrabPay, transport cards like ez-link, to credit cards, will be supported by Nets by the end of this August.

UNIFIED SYSTEM

Nets will be the only party to reconcile accounts so stallholders do not need to deal with different e-payment companies.

As part of this unified system, Nets will provide eligible hawkers a payment terminal for card payments and an SGQR code, the national QR code payment standard.

Ms Tham said she feels more at ease knowing that e-payments will now be processed the same day.

But like many other hawkers, she said that cash is still king, especially among older customers.

Ms Tham, who keeps her Nets payment terminal in a box shelved under the counter of her stall, said: "Nobody uses it. People still prefer paying by cash."

Customer Ong Jun Ming, 22, a car mechanic who was at Block 724 Ang Mo Kio Food Centre, agreed.

While he was not aware that Nets payments were available at hawker centres, he said: "I'm very used to giving cash, it's more convenient that way."