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Transactions on gift cards and cryptocurrency—and even buy now, pay later capability—are coming to commercial washers, dryers, and vending machines with an announcement Monday by PayRange Inc. that it will support the new payment methods.
The Portland, Ore.-based company, which says it processes for more than half a million commercial machines, is now supporting transactions on retailer gift cards, including those from Target, Starbucks, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Apple, and other chains. Crypto users who have an account with Coinbase, a major digital-currency platform, can sign into their account in the PayRange mobile app to use major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Details about the BNPL feature were not immediately available, though PayRange says the feature will allow users to postpone payment to a later date.
The company, which supports payment by credit and debit card as well as via Apple Pay and Google Pay, says the new payment options will be included automatically at no additional cost to machine owners. It adds owners need not make any updates to their equipment and are not liable for consumer credit risk on the BNPL feature.
Limited payment options at self-serve machines have “always limited sales and are a source of great consumer frustration,” argues Paresh Patel, PayRange’s founder and chief executive, in a statement. Even the widespread installation of card readers on vending machines, he says, does not satisfy younger consumers who are looking to use a wider array of payment methods. The company says owners can add yet more payment methods later without the need for technology upgrades.
PayRange and its contactless-payment technology have seen fast growth during the pandemic. Since February of 2020, when it closed on a $70-million funding round, its network has doubled from the 250,000 machines it supported then.
Owners that adopt PayRange install a small dongle on their machines to enable contactless payments via Bluetooth. In addition to making payment, consumers can use the app to find the nearest machines that can take PayRange. The company’s credit card rate is 3.25% in the United States, or 4.25% in Canada, according to information on its Web site.
Rivalry in the market for payments on unattended machines is picking up. Cantaloupe Inc. last week unveiled its ePort Engage Combo, a device combining a card reader with a telemeter and featuring a touchscreen. The publicly held company, based in Malvern, Pa., reported in February it processed $553.3 million in transactions in the fourth quarter, up 31% from the same period in 2020.
