Six years after its release, Rabobank bought the mobile order and payment service MyOrder in 2012. The bank developed it into a mix of two payment apps (one for Rabobank members, one for non-members), and several payment devices including wristbands, key chains, and phone stickers.

Starting Monday, the Student Sports Center (SSC) will start a pilot using those stickers. A thousand sports center ‘regulars’ will receive the sticker for free, which can be stuck onto their cell phones, for example. They’ll be asked to use it for several months. The sticker comes with a code that can be used to activate their MyOrder account - a kind of virtual wallet the user can transfer money to from their regular bank account.

Sports center director Wim Koch hopes the cashless system will reduce the amount of cash in the SSC, and speed up the payment process. The pilot will run until summer, and possibly until the start of the new academic year in September. “So we can include a busier period, too.”
Should the system prove to be successful other ways of payment may be introduced; think key chains or wristbands visitors can wear during sports and showers. It may even be implemented in the TU/e campus card.

Martin Boers, head of Internal Affairs, considers the pilot a great test for a possible campus-wide implementation of a new payment system. Still, he’s not sure about the choice for a system that’s part of a single bank like MyOrder. “Banks are currently working on their own solution rather than developing a common system like the chipknip. For a campus-wide system, I want to be sure everyone can use it.” Boers adds he’s still unsure about the costs for a MyOrder-like system.

A talk with TU/e’s catering service Eurest about the subject will follow shortly.